


You're a Glimpse of Bliss (A Little Taste of Heaven)

by LyricalPary



Series: Comic Book verse [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 16x18, Alternate Universe, Ashton is a geek who works at a comic book store, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Geek Culture, Hurt/Comfort, Luke is a precious bean who must be protected, M/M, Marvel talk, Mentions of past rape/sexual assault, Pining, Skateboarding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 14:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 66,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4308759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyricalPary/pseuds/LyricalPary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashton isn’t a superhero. He’s just a typical geek who works in a comic book store and spends way too much time straightening his hair every morning, but not enough time thinking about what he wants to do with his life after finishing high school, because he assumes that he has no future.</p><p>Luke isn’t a superhero, either. He’s just a boy with too many problems and not enough solutions, so he spends his days reading comic books because the Marvel universe is a great distraction from the universe within his own mind.</p><p>Neither of them are looking to be saved, but somehow they find salvation within each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> OK I don't want to babble but basically I've been working on this for 3 weeks and I wrote a bit every single day and this is a lot of words so I'm pretty proud of myself! But I'm also sorry because I suck at estimating and assumed that this would be 20-30k, only now it has become a monster... so, since it's written as a oneshot, I didn't want to split it in half but I did for your convenience, although both halves are insanely long?! Again, I am so so so sorry.
> 
> Anyway, thank you to my lovely friend Gab for helping me a TON with the comic information, since I don't read comic books lol. And thank you to my precious Naomi for suggesting ideas to me and reading the drafts/giving me feedback!! And a big thanks to Emi, my cinnamon apple, for creating the added playlist ❤❤❤ Also shout out to everyone else who was excited for this 'cause I know there were so many of you, I see you and I love you very much!! I hope that you all enjoy this :~)
> 
>  **Warning:** Listed above, but just in case anyone doesn't read the tags closely--this story may contain content that some will find uncomfortable to read. I did my best to keep it to a minimum, but there will be a discussion about rape/sexual assault and very brief mentions of it in the second half of the story. This story also focuses a lot on the concept of virginity, which the author knows is total bullshit, but it's a very real thing to the characters and so it's been written that way. 
> 
> **Disclaimer:** I don't own Marvel, DC, or any of the comic book characters discussed, obviously!
> 
>  
> 
> **I do not give anyone permission to upload this work anywhere else.**  
> 

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[[8tracks]](http://8tracks.com/lucasashtons/you-re-a-glimpse-of-bliss-a-little-taste-of-heaven)

* * *

 

“Head or tails?”

Two very unimpressed eyes look in Ashton’s direction, then at the old quarter that he holds in between his index finger and thumb. The owner of those eyes wrinkles her nose in distaste, but Ashton already knows that she’ll play along, anyway. When they’re bored and there isn’t anything else to do, Ashley will always play along.

“Heads,” she says, deciding at last.

Ashton flips the coin and they both watch as it turns and turns in mid-air, before he catches it with the other hand to reveal the results.

Smirking, Ashton shakes his head. “Tails.”

In response, Ashley only rolls her eyes and returns her attention to the comic in front of her, because of course she’s reading instead of cleaning the glass that her elbows are resting on. But Ashton isn’t working like he’s supposed to be, either. He’s still bored and craving attention, so he calls out to her once more.

“Try again. Head or tails?”

On any other day, Ashley would probably ignore his silly antics, but today isn’t one of those days at all, and that’s the only reason that she indulges in him further. At least, Ashton assumes that that’s the reason.

“Heads,” she says, and this time she doesn’t watch as Ashton flips the dirty coin.

Again, he smirks. “Nope. Tails again.”

When Ashley turns to stare at Ashton with a slight frown on her face, a feeling of satisfaction swells up within him. It’s clear that he has her undivided attention now, which is exactly what he wanted to begin with.

“Fine,” she says, slowly. She rests her hip against the counter and folds her arms across her chest, looking far more serious than necessary. Ashton has to stop himself from laughing. “Tails. I choose tails this time.”

“You sure?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows at her teasingly.

“Just flip the damn thing.”

“Okay, okay.”

As demanded, Ashton flips the coin again.

It isn’t tails.

“You’re cheating,” is what Ashley instantly responds with, and the accusation really does have Ashton laughing. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you’re obviously cheating.”

“What? You can’t be serious.” Upon seeing that she’s very serious, Ashton raises an eyebrow. “I’m not cheating, though. I mean, how can someone _possibly_ cheat at a game like this? They can’t. It’s all about fate.”

Ashley rolls her eyes again, taking a step towards him. “There’s no such thing, you bozo. Now let me see the coin!”

“No!” Ashton shouts, laughing, and he successfully dodges her hand when she makes a gab for the coin. Ashley doesn’t stop there, though, and in a matter of seconds they look like two children squabbling over a brand new toy, instead of eighteen year olds who are supposed to be _working_.

Eventually, they lose the coin and everything goes back to being boring. It’s been a rather slow day at the comic book store, not that they ever have too many customers at once, anyway. But Ashton’s sure that he can count the total amount of today’s customers on his fingers, so yeah, things have been rather slow. Aside from playing silly games with coins or staring at his phone, there really isn’t anything to do, and that’s why Ashton is _bored_. He’s bored and needs a distraction, but sadly there aren’t any.

Okay, so technically that’s wrong. Since this is a real job and all, there’s plenty of shit that needs to be done and Ashton supposes that _someone_ has to do it, unless he wants to get fired again and lose his monthly paycheck. But to be fair, the manager at the video store he used to work at was a total asshole.

Before leaving the cash register, Ashton briefly considers letting Ashley know that he’ll be back in a second, but he hardly doubts that she’ll even notice his absence, since she’s currently staring down at the comic with wide eyes. Whatever it is that she’s reading must be really good—or so shitty that she can’t put it down—and Ashton doesn’t want to interrupt her, so he slips into the backroom unnoticed.

And really, he should’ve known what he would find, but he’s still frowning when he sees Michael napping in a chair, one of his precious manga books about to fall from his lap.

The sound of Ashton’s loud voice in the small room rouses him from his sleep.

“Michael, you’re supposed to be doing _inventory_ , not snoozing,” Ashton reminds him, scolding the younger boy. It takes Michael a moment to remember where the hell he is, but when he does, he’s pouting as he rubs his tired eyes.

“And I _did_ , see? Now what else do you want from me?”

“If you’re already finished, then what’s that?” Ashton asks, pointing to the untouched boxes on the other side of the room.

Michael glances at the boxes, then at Ashton’s face, and then at the boxes once more. When he looks at Ashton again, he somehow manages to say with a totally straight face:

“You put those there just now.”

Due to the fact that Michael’s accusation is complete bullshit and they both know that the truth is he’d fallen asleep on the job again, Ashton really shouldn’t indulge in his nonsense. But because Ashton is _Ashton_ , and because they all slack off to some extent, of course they end up having a petty argument about the whole thing until Ashton agrees to help him finish, since there’s nothing better to do.

Ashton is also very aware that he has just been suckered into helping, which isn’t hard to do at all, so it occurs often. Michael only slacks off on purpose because his uncle is the one who owns Clifford’s Comic Books in the first place, but his father made him get a job here so that he could learn the value of hard work, or some bullshit like that. Except, now the sixteen year old spends his time reading manga in the backroom because he doesn’t even _like_ comic books, and that’s a fun fact that he feels the need to remind everyone of all the time.

In contrast, Ashton works at the comic book store because, well, obviously there is money involved. But the second reason is that he loves comic books more than most things in the world, probably. Most of all, he has always been a total Marvel geek, and so has Ashley, which is one of the many reasons that they’re still best friends after eight whole years. And although many work days are filled with boredom, Ashton has to admit that he’ll always love it here much more than his first job as a cashier at KFC. Memories of raw chicken still haunt him to this very day.

By the time that they finally get another customer, Ashton is already slouching in front of the cash register again, chewing on his fingernails because that’s just something that he does. He’s just about to greet the customer when he glances up to find that they’ve got _customers_. But, their unnecessarily loud voices give them away even before Ashton sees them, and a subtle frown sets in because this particular group of teens comes into the store quite often. Ashton doesn’t really care about them, but the manager, Richard, hates their guts because they’re loud and obnoxious and they disturb the other customers who just want to browse through the comic books.

Not that there are any other customers in the small store besides them.

Not that there are _ever_ any other customers when they come in, but Richard seems to think otherwise.

However, Richard currently isn’t here, so Ashton ignores the rowdy boys and goes back to examining his fingernails. Similarly, the rowdy boys ignore his presence and with their skateboards clutched to their sides, they make their way to the back of the store where the 18+ comics are, despite all of them clearly being under eighteen years old.

Except, one of them chooses not to ignore Ashton.

“Hi.”

Out of both politeness and curiosity, Ashton looks up and is met with a familiar smile on a familiar face. Most of all, he recognizes the blond fringe that’s even more tragic than his own, and the boy’s slightly awkward posture because his shoulders are getting to be too big for his lanky body. He’s still young, though, so he’ll grow into them eventually.

For now, Ashton returns the smile as if it’s automatic.

“Oh, hey there! What’s up?”

Usually, Ashton wouldn’t speak so casually to a customer, but this is someone that he knows, so it’s okay. Well, it’s someone that he _sort of_ knows. As in, the blond boy—whose name is Luke, if Ashton remembers correctly—comes into the store almost every single day, even on weekends such as this one. So, it’s hard not to recognize him, even though he usually has his face buried in a comic. But he always greets Ashton when he visits, and Ashton always greets him back.

Yet, despite his frequent visits, Luke is still rather _shy_.

“Nothing much. Just, um… y’know…” Luke trails off and awkwardly points in the direction of his friends, who have left him standing at the front of the store. Apparently having nothing more to say, he smiles again—a bashful smile that makes him look even more innocent—before quickly chasing after the other boys.

Well now. That brief confrontation couldn’t have been more awkward if they’d tried.

Whatever. Ashton doesn’t dwell on it for more than two seconds. Instead, he shrugs and looks around for something else to occupy his time with, and it’s in this moment that he hears Ashley murmuring under her breath from just a few feet away.

“What was that?” he asks, turning to her with raised brows.

As if confirming Ashton’s suspicions, Ashley hums innocently and replies unconvincingly: “It’s nothing.”

And because it certainly _is_ something and Ashley is definitely teasing him now, Ashton prods further.

“Liar,” he says, then pauses to give her a chance to deny it. She doesn’t. “You just said ‘Romeo’ under your breath. Why?”

Now Ashley rolls her eyes, apparently tired of whatever game she had initiated because Ashton is clueless, and sometimes she becomes impatient with him. But honestly, it’s not _his_ fault that she chooses to be cryptic at the worst of times.

“I was referring to Luke as Romeo, _duh_ ,” she explains with a sigh, but there’s something playful in her voice, especially when she adds: “And that makes you Juliet.”

Even with the explanation, Ashton just doesn’t get it. Like, he obviously understands the reference to those fictional characters, and he remembers how much he despised reading Shakespeare in class, but the confusing part is why Ashley would make such a comparison. And since she can tell by the utter confusion on Ashton’s face that he still doesn’t get it, Ashley lets out another sigh, this time louder, and gives it to him straight. You know, like Ashton would have preferred it from the beginning.

“Jesus Christ, Ashton. That boy has the most obvious crush on you, why do you have to be so damn oblivious?” she says with a laugh.

For two whole seconds, Ashton doesn’t really react to those words because he isn’t sure how to. But then his brain finally processes it, and he honest-to-god _laughs_. Because, well, it’s a funny claim to make, even if it’s completely wrong.

“What? No he doesn’t,” Ashton tells her, still laughing since it’s probably a dumb joke that she’s making, just so that he’ll be flustered.

Yet, Ashley doesn’t take back her words. “He does,” she states, matter-of-factly, even though she’s still wrong about that.

She _has_ to be wrong, Ashton thinks, because there’s no way that she can know whether such a thing is true or not. Neither of them have ever really talked to Luke, other than greeting him when he comes in and bidding him farewell when he leaves. So, Ashley is definitely just making things up, for whatever reason.

That’s why Ashton shakes his head, disbelievingly. “He doesn’t,” he repeats, but out of curiosity, he adds: “What makes you think that he does?”

By now, Ashley appears to be uninterested in the particular topic, because she’s staring at the comic again. Instead of answering Ashton’s question, she flips to the next page of the magazine and gasps at whatever has just happened to the characters, because she’s far too absorbed in the silly story. Ashton wants an answer, though.

“Ashley,” he says, then waits until he has her attention before asking once more: “What makes you think that?”

Ashley only shrugs before redirecting her attention to the comic. But this time she answers with, “Well, for one thing, it’s obvious as fuck. And unlike you, I actually pay attention to the little details. He’s definitely crushing on you, babe.”

Once again, Ashton doesn’t react because he doesn’t know how to, doesn’t know what to think. But he also doesn’t argue with her, since there isn’t any point and it’s not like he’ll win. It’s still a strange thing to assume, though. After all, when has Luke ever shown any sort of romantic interest in him? Ashton can’t recall, but maybe it’s because Ashley is right and he doesn’t pay enough attention to the little details.

For instance, Ashton knows absolutely nothing about Luke, aside from his name and the fact that he loves comic books and owns a skateboard. He doesn’t even know how old Luke is, but he guesses sixteen or seventeen—most likely the former, because he looks pretty young. Other than that, Luke is a complete stranger who has been visiting the store almost every day, at least in the past few months that Ashton has been working here.

Now he feels a little bad, and he thinks that he _should_ know more about Luke since he’s been visiting for so long, but also, what would be the point in that? Back when Ashton had worked at KFC, there was a man who came in every single day without fail and ordered the same combo. Ashton never felt the need to learn anything about _him_ , so why should he feel bad for knowing nothing about Luke?

The answer is that he shouldn’t feel bad at all, so there isn’t any reason to convince himself otherwise.

Ashton shakes his head and decides not to dwell on it any longer. This is all Ashley’s fault for claiming that Luke has an obvious crush on him, which is just not true. Or, is it? Either way, it’s clear that Ashley had only suggested such a thing to stir him up, and Ashton refuses to succumb to her silly mind games.

A little while later, the loud teens leave the comic book store without buying anything, as usual.

All but one of them, and it comes as no surprise.

“Hi,” Luke quietly says as he approaches the counter. He doesn’t actually look at Ashton when he says it, though—he keeps his eyes down for the most part, and sets down the comic that he’d had in his arms, sliding it across the counter so that he can pay for it.

Looking at Luke up close and from a new perspective (all thanks to _Ashley_ ), it almost feels as if Ashton is seeing him for the first time. For example, he notices the cute little dimple in Luke’s chin, and how he’s nervously chewing on his bottom lip as he reaches into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet—which has the Batman symbol on it, of all things. Ashton also notices the pointy curve of his nose, the little bit of acne on his cheeks, and how unrealistically long his eyelashes are.

Basically, Luke is sort of cute. Ashton can freely admit that without it meaning anything else, and it certainly doesn’t mean that he’s Juliet and Luke is Romeo, for god’s sake. Still, he can’t help but be very intrigued by the notion of Luke having a so-called ‘crush’ on him.

That’s why Ashton decides to test Ashley’s theory.

“How do you like it so far?” Ashton asks, as he types the comic’s barcode into the machine since the scanner isn’t working at the moment.

At first, Luke merely stares at him, mouth hanging open as if he can’t believe that Ashton is speaking to him. Or, maybe he’s simply confused by the question itself. Yeah, that’s probably it.

“I meant the comic,” Ashton elaborates, giggling a little at the boy’s reaction. “How do you like the story so far? I’ve never read the _Young Avengers_ series myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. Do you like it?”

“Oh…” Luke replies, and a split second later, suddenly his whole face is lighting up. “Oh! Yeah, yeah I love it. It’s so awesome, you have to give it a try.” He’s grinning as he speaks, like the most excited child on Christmas Day. Ashton doesn’t interrupt him when he begins to go on a tangent, even though Luke still hasn’t handed him the money yet.

“Like, okay, so there are all these different characters, right? Only some of them are from the original _Young Avengers_ , but like, you’ll know what I’m talking about after you read the first line-up. Anyway, my favorite character, Noh-Varr—who’s this really cool alien guy, by the way—just did this thing where… wait, shit, you probably don’t want me to spoil it for you. But, here’s the premise…”

Ashton watches with amusement as Luke goes on and on about the comic, apparently losing all shyness because he’s talking about something that he really loves—which is understandable, Ashton gets the same way. He doesn’t understand a lot of what Luke is telling him, but it sounds interesting and he thinks that he really will start reading the series, despite only bringing it up because he’d wanted to have an actual conversation with Luke. Even so, Luke does most of the talking. But Ashton is perfectly fine with that, because it’s much better than being bored out of his mind.

“Wow, that sounds like a really complex storyline,” Ashton says, once Luke has finished his long explanation. “Anyway, it’s fifteen even.”

For the second time that afternoon, Luke stares at him in confusion, but this time he’s much quicker in figuring it out himself. And when he does, it’s the most adorable reaction that Ashton has ever seen before, probably. Luke’s cheeks instantly turn a shade of pink and he looks down again, fumbling with his wallet.

“Oh, right, the money,” he says, speaking a little too fast out of embarrassment. After handing Ashton the amount that’s due, he lets out an awkward laugh, one of his hands rubbing the back of his neck when he says: “Sorry for rambling, you probably don’t care about any of… that… um, yeah. Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Ashton gently reassures him, mainly because the boy looks like he’s about to have some sort of meltdown. Luke doesn’t say anything else, though, and goes back to simply chewing on his bottom lip. As soon as the receipt is done printing, Ashton holds it out for him to take along with the comic, and if he lets their fingers brush intentionally, it’s only because of the adorable way that Luke blushes even more and nearly drops his belongings.

“Thanks,” Luke murmurs, eyes glued to the floor as he struggles with shoving his wallet back into his pocket, since his other arm is still clutching the skateboard against his side, and now the comic as well. He manages without any further mishaps, though.

“You’re very welcome!” Ashton says, grinning widely. “And, you’ll come back soon to tell me all about this one, right?”

Suddenly feeling shy again, Luke simply nods and gives him a small smile.

Just then, the door opens and one of the other boys from before shouts into the store: “Hurry up, Hemmings! Or we’re leaving you behind.”

“Coming!” Luke shouts back, apparently able to find his voice again. As he makes his way towards the exit, he spares Ashton one last glance and waves goodbye, to which Ashton waves back and watches as the door closes behind him.

Ashton is extremely glad that Ashley had gone into the backroom just before Luke approached the counter, otherwise she would be teasing him right about now. And Ashton _really_ doesn’t want to have to deal with the smirk that would be on her face, because she’d been right all along and Ashton wouldn’t be able to deny it.

The store is quiet again after that, and the remainder of Ashton’s shift goes back to being unbearably boring.

***

It’s a few nights later when Ashton begins to lose his patience. He’s sitting on the floor in the living room, attempting to do his homework but not really getting anywhere. He supposes that it’s his own fault for letting his assignments pile up like this, until he has so much to complete that his head feels like it’s going to explode sooner or later. Still, it would be much easier to concentrate if his younger siblings stopped interrupting him every few minutes with something petty.

“Ashton!” comes Lauren’s whine from the kitchen, for what’s probably the fifth time in the last ten minutes alone. “Harry is splashing water at me again, can you tell him to stop it?”

“I’m not!” Harry yells, but he giggles afterwards, which means that he’s obviously being a little liar.

Two seconds later, Lauren gasps and shouts, “He just did it again!”

Ashton is beginning to get a headache, honestly. He furiously erases the mistakes on his notebook paper and replies: “Cut it out, Harry. And can you two please keep it down in there? I can’t concentrate and washing the dishes doesn’t require _yelling_.”

Both of them promise to keep the noise down, but Ashton still hears the occasional whine from Lauren and Harry’s mischievous laughter.

The routine in their household is fairly simple: their mother starts cooking the dinner, Ashton takes over and finishes it so that Anne can rush out of the house and drive down to the diner, where she works as a waitress during the nightshift, and then Lauren and Harry clean up the kitchen once everything is done. Sometimes they just make even _more_ of a mess, splashing each other with dish water and leaving bubbles on the kitchen counter, but it’s an overall good routine that they’ve had for a while now.

Ashton has never been a huge fan of babysitting, but he loves his siblings—despite how annoying they can be—and never turns his mother down when she asks for his help. Besides, it’s his job as the eldest son to take care of things while she’s working endless hours to make sure that they live a relatively comfortable life. However, sometimes all of it can be just a bit overwhelming, and even though Ashton won’t openly complain about it, he _does_ require the occasional break.

That’s the excuse that he gives himself, after another fifteen minutes of frustration. He closes his notebook and pushes his textbooks away, telling himself that he should be proud that he got most of it done in one night, which doesn’t usually happen. But tonight is an exception, so he stands up and stretches his tired limbs, then calls his siblings into the room so that they can watch TV together or something.

After a vote, the three of them end up watching _Ice Age_ on one of the movie channels. Personally, Ashton hates all of the movies in that series, but he decides that he’ll put up with it for his siblings. And since it’s still sort of early by the time that the movie is over, they start watching _Madagascar_ —which Ashton also dislikes—but again, he puts up with it.

There’s about twenty minutes left of the movie when Ashton gets a phone call that he immediately answers, upon seeing Ashley’s name on the screen and a silly picture of the two of them taken earlier that year.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks, then brings a hand up to stifle a yawn that escapes him.

“Guess what!” Ashley practically screams into the phone, much to Ashton’s dismay.

“Geez, can you get any louder?” he grumbles with annoyance, but laughs when his friend mocks him. “What is it?”

“Ollie is having a party tonight.”

Ashton blinks at the television screen. “And what does that have to do with me?”

“Shh! I can’t hear the movie,” Lauren says from next to him, a finger up to her lips and an annoyed frown on her face.

Ashton doesn’t stop his eyes from rolling, since his younger sister has obviously seen this movie at least a dozen times, but she doesn’t stop glaring at him for being too loud on the phone. So Ashton decides that he’ll continue the conversation elsewhere, and he almost feels bad for getting up from the couch, since Harry had been half-asleep and leaning against him. The little boy doesn’t seem bothered by it, though, and resorts to resting his head on the arm of the couch so that he can go back to sleep.

“What does that have to do with me?” Ashton repeats as soon as he’s standing alone in the hallway. He leans back against the white wall and waits for Ashley’s explanation.

“Well, I’ve decided that I’m going,” she says, and then there’s a short pause. “So you should come, too.”

Ashton’s answer comes instantly. “No. You know how I feel about parties. Besides, I’m babysitting right now.”

Whether she means to or not, Ashley sighs into the phone and Ashton can perfectly imagine the pleading look on her face right now. When she wants him to do something for her, her eyes get really big and she pokes out her bottom lip, and somehow it always works. He’s glad that he can only hear her voice.

“Okay, but,” she starts, speaking slowly as she tries to come up with a way to change Ashton’s mind. “I know how you feel about parties, but technically this one is hardly a party at all? Like, it’s just a small get-together. Ollie said so himself, and you know that he wouldn’t lie. I wouldn’t lie to you, either, or purposely put you in a situation where you’d be uncomfortable. You know that, Ash.”

This time Ashton doesn’t respond immediately, and Ashley uses that to her advantage.

“Obviously you don’t _have_ to come, but I think that you’d have a lot of fun if you did. Besides, you and I used to hang out and have fun all the time, and now we just don’t anymore. I really miss that, Ash.”

Ashton is the one sighing now, and he has to admit to himself that he misses it, too. But instead of saying that, he replies with: “We hang out at school all the time, though… we see each other at work, too.”

“That’s different and you know it,” Ashley tells him, but instead of sounding annoyed, she sounds a little disappointed. Ashton really doesn’t want to disappoint his best friend in the whole world.

“Yeah, but… let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that I chose to go. I’m still supposed to be babysitting,” he points out, sighing once more.

Ashley hums for a moment, thinking to herself as she tries to come up with a solution. When she finds out, she says, “You can put them to bed early?”

Well, that’s a plan that Ashton supposes just might work. Harry is already asleep, from the looks of it, and it’s not as if Ashton will be out all night. While he’s pretty sure that nothing bad would happen, he can activate the alarm system before leaving just to be safe, and only stay at the party for an hour or so before coming home again. It could work. He almost wants to try it.

“Do you know who will be there?” Ashton suddenly asks, and he hates that he fails to hide the excitement in his tone.

“Just some people,” she says dismissively. When Ashton says nothing in return, she makes a _tsk_ sound and elaborates. “The usual gang, you know… Ollie, Andy, Zakk, Kira, and then there’s us, obviously, Dylan, and a few other people that I can’t remember.”

Even though Ashley had tried to speak fast so that Ashton wouldn’t catch that specific name, he definitely does and he feels his heart begin to race at the mere mention of _him_.

“Dylan? Like, _that_ Dylan?” he asks, sounding just a bit panicked.

Ashley’s response is slightly delayed. “Uh-huh.”

If Ashton rolls his eyes any harder, they’d probably pop right out of his head. “Seriously, Ashley?” He groans frustratingly. “You couldn’t have mentioned him first? There’s no way that I’m showing my face if Dylan is there!”

Maybe, just maybe, Ashton is being a bit overdramatic, since his reason for not wanting to see Dylan is because of an incident that occurred nearly a year ago. But maybe he isn’t being overdramatic, and this really is the worst plan that Ashley has ever come up with. Maybe Ashton has every reason to start panicking, because he knows that this is a bad idea that he obviously shouldn’t go along with, but a small part of him still _wants_ to go through with it.

Of course Ashley had expected him to react in such a way, which is probably why she sounds totally calm when she says, “He wants to see you.”

And it’s those words that make Ashton go completely still. It’s as if time stops around him, even though he can still hear the movie playing in the living room and Lauren’s subsequent laughter, as well as his heart pounding in his ears. He doesn’t even know if those words are true, yet he’s reacting like this. It’s pretty pathetic.

“How do you know?” he asks quietly, cautiously, unsure.

Ashley still sounds calm when she speaks again. “He was there when Ollie told me about the party, the other day. Dylan said that if I decided to go after all, then I should bring you along with me because he misses seeing us around. He misses seeing _you_ , Ash.”

To be honest, Ashton doesn’t know what’s worse: the fluttering in the pit of his stomach, or the fact that he knows Ashley is telling the truth. He had sworn to himself that he was completely over his crush on Dylan, yet he’s reacting like this, just because the guy apparently wants to see him again. Even after everything, Dylan wants to see him. He doesn’t even realize that he’s smiling ridiculously wide until his cheeks begin to hurt a little.

Ashton thinks that he just might die of happiness, right now.

“How long do I have to get ready?”

Although he obviously can’t see it, he can tell that Ashley is smiling, too.

“I’ll be outside of your place in about ten minutes,” she says, then promptly hangs up.

Ashton continues to stand in the hallway for a few seconds after that, staring at the phone’s screen until it goes dark. He only has ten minutes to find something cool to wear, as well as fix his hair up and brush his teeth, just in case. Time is ticking and he can’t stop smiling despite the nerves in his gut, so he quickly walks back into the living room to solve a certain issue first.

“It’s bedtime, guys,” he says, turning off the television. Both Lauren and Harry instantly start to whine.

“But we just got to the ending!” Lauren exclaims, searching for the remote to turn the television back on. She fails to see that it’s on the floor, right behind Ashton’s foot.

“You’ve seen it a thousand times before,” Ashton tells her. “Come on, Harry, it’s time to go upstairs now.”

“Aw, man,” the little boy says, even though he’d been asleep before Ashton had come back into the room. Regardless of his opinion on the matter, he rubs his sleepy eyes before getting up from the couch and walking over to Ashton to give his brother a goodnight hug. It’s what he always does before bedtime, and it never fails to make Ashton smile.

While Harry slowly retreats up the staircase, Lauren stands up from the couch and folds her arms across her chest, deciding to give Ashton a hard time because that’s what little sisters do.

“It’s only ten o’clock,” she says, trying to sound all grown-up but failing. “Mum lets me go to bed at ten-thirty.”

Ashton snorts at that. “Fine, whatever. You can stay up until then, but can you at least go to your room?”

Surprisingly, she doesn’t argue this time. Instead, Lauren walks over to him, and at first Ashton assumes that she’s going to give him a hug, too, until she stops right in front of him and holds out a hand.

“I want five,” she says.

Ashton raises an eyebrow, confused. He doesn’t question it, though, and lifts his own hand to give her a high-five. It confuses him even more when Lauren rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

“Money,” she explains with an annoyed look on her face. “Five dollars and I won’t tell mum that you left.”

Honestly? Ashton should have seen this coming. Of course she would eavesdrop on his conversation with Ashley—not that he’d been particularly quiet, but it’s still a rude thing to do. Now she’s going to blackmail him, and since he doesn’t have much time to negotiate, he has no choice but to give her what she wants.

“Okay, okay,” he grumbles, and fishes out his wallet. The evil little grin on his sister’s face widens when he slaps a five dollar bill into her palm, and she thanks him with a brief hug before running upstairs. Ashton decides that it’s certainly not as sweet as Harry’s hug, since he had to _buy_ it.

None of that matters at the moment, though. Ashton has a party to get to and a cute boy who expects him to be there, so he takes the stairs two at a time and heads for the bathroom to get ready.

***

During the entire drive to Oliver’s house, Ashton stares out of the passenger window, counting each streetlight that they pass by. It’s something that he used to do out of boredom when he was a child, only now he’s doing it because he’s too nervous to do anything else or make conversation with Ashley. She can obviously tell that he’s nervous, too, so she doesn’t say much and keeps her eyes on the road, occasionally glancing over at him to make sure that he hasn’t changed his mind about this. But, counting streetlights doesn’t keep Ashton’s mind from wandering to dark places.

It happened at a party nearly a year ago. You know, the incident that ruined Ashton’s social life? Yeah. He hates that he can vividly remember all of the events from that night, which had started off as the greatest night of his life but ended up being the worst.

Everything had been going smoothly, up until a certain point in the night. Ashton remembers being in the room full of people, sweaty bodies stretching from wall to wall because there were so many attendees. It had been the biggest party he’d ever gone to, and the best part was that all of his closest friends were there, too.

Even so, Ashton didn’t really hang out with them that night, because he’d been far too busy paying attention to Dylan. His pulse quickens when he remembers the way that Dylan had looked at him, how he’d said that Ashton was the prettiest boy in the entire room. He remembers the sweet sound of Dylan’s laughter in his ear, and how the other boy kept leaning against him to be heard over the loud, booming music that filled the entire house.

Most of all, Ashton remembers Dylan’s hands on his hips and those soft lips against his neck, when they were grinding against each other while dancing in the middle of the room. See, the greatest thing about Dylan is that he never gives a fuck about what anyone else thinks about him. He paints his fingernails because he likes to, and he grew his hair past his shoulders because that’s what he wanted to do. So when he finally kissed Ashton right there on the dancefloor, tongue and all, he never paid any attention to the whistling and hollering around them from the few people who cheered them on. He just didn’t care, and Ashton loved that about him.

But that was when the best night of Ashton’s life became his worst. He remembers grinding on top of Dylan’s lap on one of the couches in the big room, until neither of them could take it any longer and desperately needed to get off. He remembers being led to one of the bathrooms, and giggling maniacally because he was so drunk, so happy, and Dylan was holding his hand. Ashton also remembers being pushed up against the bathroom door once they were inside, and the image of Dylan dropping onto his knees, a wicked smile on his face as he asked Ashton for permission to go further. He remembers nodding, and holding his breath as those fingers undid the button of his jeans.

Unfortunately, nervousness and excitement just do not go hand in hand while you’re drunk. Ashton had been overwhelmed by both emotions at the time, because he had never done anything sexual with anyone before and he just liked Dylan _so, so much_ , it was too much to handle.

Ashton couldn’t contain it. Literally. He was so shitfaced from all of the alcohol that he’d consumed that night, and he ended up vomiting before anything actually happened between them. Instead, what happened is that Dylan hadn’t backed away in time, nor could Ashton bring a hand up to cover his mouth before the vomit escaped him. And who in their right mind would continue to give someone a blowjob, right after that person puked into their hair?

The embarrassment from that night is worse than anything that Ashton will probably ever deal with in his entire life. _Ever_. He clenches his eyes shut, trying to forget the sound of laughter from the people around him as he tried to escape the big house. After an incident like that, can you really blame him for hating parties? He used to love going to them, but now he hates them and will probably forever hate them, because he’s sure that if he ever shows his face at one, then the laughing will start all over again.

“We’re here.”

Startled by the voice that suddenly breaks the silence, Ashton jumps. Not even a second later, a warm hand comes to rest on his shoulder, and he turns to look his friend in the eyes. Ashley looks concerned for him.

“Will you be okay?” she asks, and it’s a question that Ashton doesn’t know the answer to, so he remains silent at first. But then Dylan’s face pops into his head, and his tummy is filled with butterflies again. Maybe, just maybe, he really will be okay.

So Ashton nods. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He gives her a genuine smile afterwards, just to prove it.

Apparently it works, because Ashley gives his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before opening the car door and getting out. Ashton does the same.

***

Oliver’s house looks the same as it had the last time that Ashton visited, about a month ago. Something tragic happened to the boy’s parents when he was younger, and he’s been living with his aunt ever since. Even though they’ve been friends for a while, Oliver never told Ashton what that tragic thing was, and Ashton never asked. His aunt is pretty cool, though. ‘Cool’ as in, she doesn’t give a damn about what Oliver gets up to, as long as he leaves her alone and doesn’t mess with any of her shit. So when the woman opens the door and finds Ashton and Ashley standing there, she doesn’t ask any questions. Instead, she points in the direction of the basement and goes back to trying to light the cigarette between her lips.

Again, Ashton should have seen it coming, when he descends the basement stairs right behind Ashley and Oliver more or less pounces on him, as soon as he sees who it is. Ashton gladly accepts the bear hug because he had missed his friend just as much.

“It’s about time!” Oliver says to him, and he takes it upon himself to purposely mess up Ashton’s fringe, laughing when he whines. “I was starting to think that you wouldn’t show up at all, and that would’ve really hurt my feelings, you know.”

Although he knows that it’s only a joke, Ashton mutters an apology, anyway. He feels much better about it when Oliver simply smiles at him again, but their little reunion is interrupted when Ashley clears her throat. Oliver turns to her next and pretends as if he’s just noticing her for the first time, just because he knows that it’ll annoy her.

“Oh. Hey, Ashley,” he says dismissively, but then he yelps weakly when she punches him in the arm. Ashton laughs at the whole thing because he’s used to it, even though he never really understood it at all. But that’s just the type of friendship that Oliver and Ashley have together: endless banter and pretending that they can’t stand each other.

Ashton takes this moment to glance around the dimly lit room. He’d already noticed the smell of cannabis as soon as they had entered the basement, so it’s no surprise at all when he sees the few people passing it around at one side of the room. More importantly, he’s happy to see that Ashley had been right; at most, there are a dozen people sitting or standing around the basement, absorbed in their own little worlds. There’s music playing from the old stereo that Oliver refuses to throw away, but the volume is turned down low enough so that people can still engage in conversation without having to yell at each other. There’s also alcohol, but it’s none of the weird shit that you find at big parties in the red plastic cups, just cans of cheap beer spread around the room—some empty, some unopened.

Best of all? Ashton knows every single person in the room. Well, to some extent. Most of them go to his school, and some of the others he’s seen around town. He knows for a fact that just about everyone in the room is either queer or curious, and that makes him exceptionally happy. There’s nothing better than being around people who can relate to him, even if he doesn’t know much else about them. Big parties like the one from the previous year don’t allow for such closeness. Ashton feels comfortable here, though. He almost feels at home.

That is, until a familiar voice calls out to him.

“Hey, Ashton!”

Just like that, Ashton’s heart begins to race in the same way that it had earlier that night, just from the sheer mention of a certain name. Only, this time it’s worse for obvious reasons. That’s when Ashton’s eyes finally land on Dylan, who is sitting on the couch to the left side of the room. He hadn’t noticed the guy before now, likely due to the person who had been standing in the way. But now he has a clear view of Dylan, and Dylan has a clear view of him, too. For some reason, he’s smiling at Ashton as if he were an old friend who has finally come back home.

It makes Ashton’s heart ache.

He almost turns around to leave, deciding that he’s just not brave enough, but then Ashley is grabbing him by the elbow and giving him a certain _look_ that Ashton doesn’t feel like trying to decipher. If she’s attempting to encourage him, then well, it’s certainly not working. It doesn’t appear that he has much of a choice, though, because Dylan is still smiling at him and waving for him to come over, and it would be extremely awkward if Ashton just… left.

Once she’s sure that he won’t run away anymore, Ashley lets go of him and walks over to a group of girls sitting on old bean bag chairs. She plops down into the lap of one of the girls, who laughs and pulls her closer in order to kiss her cheek. Unsatisfied with a mere cheek kiss, Ashley lifts the girl’s chin and gives her a proper kiss on the lips, making the girl laugh again. Ashton doesn’t realize he’s staring until Ashley looks back at him, gives him a wink, and then goes back to giving her undivided attention to the girl she’s sitting on. Ashton wants to punch himself for being unable to remember the girl’s name at the moment, but more importantly, he wonders why Ashley has never mentioned being involved with anyone. He’ll have to ask her about that later.

For now, Ashton lets his eyes wander back over to Dylan, who hasn’t stopped looking at him since the moment that he noticed his arrival.

This is fine. This is okay. Ashton can _do this_. He takes a deep breath and, trying his best to appear unfazed, begins timidly walking over to the old couch. Dylan’s smile widens even more, and Ashton swears that he really will die if he has to keep seeing that beautiful smile for the rest of the night.

“You made it!” Dylan chimes, still grinning up at him. Upon noticing that there isn’t much space on the couch, Dylan scoots over as much as possible and gestures for the person next to him to do the same. Then, he pats the couch cushion, which means that Ashton should probably sit down now instead of standing there like an awkward goose. “Ollie told me that you probably wouldn’t come, but I knew that you would.”

Let’s get one thing straight: Ashton has always been a pretty outgoing person. That is, he’s never had trouble talking to strangers or making friends at school. However, now that he’s talking to a gorgeous boy that he ~~used to~~ has a crush on, the same boy who he accidentally puked on at a stupid party a bunch of months ago, the words seem to get caught in Ashton’s throat. He finds that it’s easier if he just doesn’t look at Dylan, but at the same time, it’s so damn hard to look away from those pretty brown eyes. He almost feels trapped, but not necessarily in a bad way.

“Well—” Ashton starts to say, but he has to pause and clear his throat when he realizes how small he sounds. “It… was a last minute decision? Yeah. I had no idea about this ‘get-together’ until maybe half an hour ago, when Ashley called and asked if I wanted to come.”

Dylan nods as Ashton speaks, which is another small detail on the very long list of things that Ashton likes about Dylan. Before the _incident_ that caused Ashton to avoid the guy’s existence for the past eleven months, they used to have the greatest conversations because Dylan always listened to everything thing that he said, as if the words that came out of Ashton’s mouth were actually important. It certainly made him _feel_ important, that’s for sure.

In fact, Dylan was the second person whom Ashton had opened up to about his sexuality, the first person being Ashley, of course. But it was Dylan who made Ashton realize that he definitely likes girls _and_ boys, because Ashton couldn’t get the thought of kissing Dylan out of his head. Not much has changed since then, to be completely honest.

“Well, I’m really glad that you decided to come,” Dylan says, and it sounds like the absolute truth. “I miss talking to you, y’know?”

Hearing that makes Ashton feel like he’s melting. Literally. Or, maybe Oliver’s aunt has the heater on or something, even though winter is over and it’s starting to get warmer but she’s weird sometimes. So that’s probably it. Ashton will choose to blame the redness in his cheeks on the heater. Yeah.

Aside from the feeling of melting, there’s another feeling that he gets when Dylan says that, and it’s one of self-doubt and insecurity.

“Why?” he finds himself murmuring, even though he doesn’t mean to. Sadly, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Dylan huffs out a laugh and leans back against the couch, resting his head on his palm while staring at Ashton. “What do you mean ‘why’?”

As if things aren’t already awkward enough, now Ashton has to come up with some sort of explanation. He finds that he’s unable to, though. Not without bringing up the very thing that he doesn’t want to talk about.

“It’s nothing. Never mind,” he says, waving a hand dismissively and laughing quietly in hopes of easing the tension. Of course it doesn’t work, but it was worth a shot, he supposes.

“C’mon, tell me,” Dylan insists. He then lifts his other hand and pokes Ashton in the ribcage. Like, he seriously does that out of nowhere, which is why Ashton pretty much squeaks in surprise. Dylan finds his reaction to be hilarious, so he laughs.

Ashton supposes that if there’s one thing he dislikes about Dylan, is that he’s way too _chill_ about everything and never clues in on awkward situations. Or, maybe he just pretends to be oblivious, because that’s much easier than facing the reality of anything. It gets frustrating after a while, and that’s precisely what causes Ashton to blurt out:

“Dylan, I don’t know if you’ve forgotten—or maybe you’re just pretending to forget, who knows—but the last time that we were at a party together, I got drunk and puked all over your head, and then everyone laughed at us. So, yeah, forgive me if I find it incredibly hard to believe that you miss talking to me at all.”

Maybe those words come out a little too harsh, because for a split second, Dylan looks taken aback. Ashton bites his tongue and glares down at his lap, feeling even more frustrated now. See, the thing is, he just can’t understand how any of this is real. After what he’d done, why in the world would Dylan even consider spending a single moment of his time on Ashton? It just doesn’t make any sense; no one can be that kindhearted and forgiving.

Yet, it doesn’t appear as if Dylan is troubled by the past at all. As a matter of fact, after the initial shock of what Ashton has just said wears down, Dylan starts to laugh again as he rubs his temples and shakes his head in disbelief.

“ _Ugh_ , don’t remind me,” he says, still laughing for some odd reason. “That was a really wild night, wasn’t it? Aside from that unfortunate incident in the bathroom, I think that I also lost one of my shoes? I don’t even know how that’s possible, but I remember wondering a few days later: hey, where the hell is my other shoe?!”

And just like that, Dylan starts cracking up, his eyes clenched shut and his face glowing with happiness. He laughs so loudly that a few people in the room glance in their direction, before deciding that it’s nothing too interesting and going back to minding their own business. No one seems to notice or care that Ashton is the biggest loser in the basement, and neither does Dylan.

Suddenly, Ashton starts to feel like an idiot. All this time, he’s been assuming that Dylan hated him for what happened, and the only way to make things easier was to avoid Dylan at all costs, terminating whatever friendship or _something_ that they used to have. All this time, Ashton has been hating himself for the incident, when there was really no reason to at all.

Dylan isn’t angry. Dylan thinks it’s _funny_. So why can’t Ashton move on, too?

He doesn’t know why he starts to laugh as well, but he does. Ashton laughs with Dylan because he can, and it’s what he used to do a long time ago. It feels really nice to hear that laugh again. Ashton has missed it more than he even realized.

Eventually, once the two of them have managed to stop giggling like fools, they begin to talk about other things, such as what they’ve been doing for the past year. Ashton doesn’t have much to say on the subject, since nothing has really changed. He works part-time, gets average grades in all of his classes except mathematics, which he’s barely passing, and spends the rest of his time doodling random things or reading comic books. It’s definitely not the most interesting life, but Dylan listens to all of it because, well, he’s Dylan.

While listening to Dylan talk about what he’s been doing with his life for the past few months, Ashton comes to the realization that he probably never stopped crushing on the other boy. Dylan is just so unapologetically _himself_ , and that’s something that Ashton has always admired about him. He’s nice and silly and a good listener, and the fact that he still wants to talk to someone like Ashton absolutely blows Ashton’s mind. In fact, he’s slowly starting to wonder if there’s a small possibility that Dylan still _likes_ him. Because Ashton likes Dylan and he gets the vibe that Dylan likes him back, otherwise he wouldn’t have wanted Ashton to come to the party, right?

That has to be the reason. It just has to be.

Maybe it’s foolish, but Ashton begins to feel hopeful.

In the middle of their deep conversation, someone starts to bang on the basement door. When they don’t stop banging on it, Dylan calls out:

“Hey, Ollie. Someone’s at the door.”

When Dylan gets ignored, Ashton turns around to see why and he almost wishes that he hadn’t. Oliver is currently straddling his boyfriend’s lap, apparently too busy shoving his tongue down Andy’s throat to notice that someone’s banging on the door and waiting to be let it. At a really big party, the sight of someone fiercely making out with another person wouldn’t be too surprising, but since there are only a dozen people in the room, Ashton feels awkward looking at the two of them. But maybe he’s the only one, since everyone else is still engaged in conversation or simply listening to the music, and Dylan merely rolls his eyes, deciding that he’ll have to answer the door himself.

“It’s Leighton!” Dylan announces, running back down the basement stairs with another guy following behind him. “And he’s brought cupcakes!”

At the mention of cupcakes, Dylan suddenly has everyone’s attention and they all eagerly crowd Leighton at the foot of the stairs, since he’s the one holding the box of delicious sweets. Dylan is nice enough to bring a cupcake over to Ashton, who is still sitting in his spot on the couch. Ashton tries not to smile too wide when he thanks him, and he also tries not to think about how Dylan is definitely sweeter than all of the cupcakes.

Once everyone gets a cupcake and settles back into their spots, Leighton joins them on the couch.

“Ash, this is Leighton,” Dylan says, his voice slightly muffled by the cupcake that he’s shoving into his mouth. “Leighton, this is Ash.”

The two of them exchange polite greetings, but that’s about it. Leighton doesn’t give Ashton the chance to make conversation, because he leans forward on the couch and calls out to Oliver, who is still attacking Andy’s neck with kisses.

“Hey, Ollie! Your aunt stepped out to get another pack of smokes, and she told me to tell you not to burn the house down.”

For the first time in the past ten minutes, Oliver removes his mouth from Andy’s neck and glances over in their direction. When he (finally) acknowledges Leighton’s presence, he waves excitedly at the guy.

“Oh, hey! Why didn’t you tell me that you were here? It took you long enough to show up.”

Dylan actually howls at that, clapping his hands as he laughs, while Leighton just rolls his eyes and settles back into the couch. Ashton smiles but says nothing, since he doesn’t thinks that it’s his place to do so.

It’s kind of weird how they all seem to be friends with Leighton while Ashton has never heard of him before. Maybe that’s because Ashton has been neglecting his other friends, in fear of running into Dylan. And from the looks of it, Leighton is probably a year older, meaning that he would have graduated already. He certainly looks a bit older than the rest of them, with his facial hair and general aura of maturity. He’s quite good-looking, too, with his leather jacket and skinny jeans. He’s also wearing a KISS t-shirt and a pair of sunglasses even though he’s inside now, and it’s nighttime outside, so there wouldn’t be any reason for them at all. Regardless of their uselessness, they make him look even cooler and Ashton is just a little intimidated. But after watching him interact with Dylan and some of the other people in the room, it doesn’t seem like he’s a bad person, so Ashton decides that he’ll probably come to like Leighton, too.

“I’ll be right back, gonna head to the bathroom,” Ashton tells them as he stands up from the couch. Dylan tells him to ‘have fun’ and Leighton only nods in his direction, before resuming his and Dylan’s conversation about some football match.

For obvious reasons, Ashton had originally decided that he wasn’t going to drink a lick of alcohol during the party, but after realizing that Dylan doesn’t hate him at all, Ashton relaxed enough to enjoy a couple cans of the cheap beer. He’s only consumed two of them so far, but they go right through him and now he desperately needs to take a piss.

While in the bathroom of the basement, Ashton thinks about all of the good things that have come out of tonight. For one, he’s apparently friends with Dylan again, and he thinks that there just might be _something_ between them. Secondly, he’s beginning to regain his social skills. You know, the real ones, and not the façade that he puts on when dealing with customers at the comic book store.

In Oliver’s basement, Ashton can be himself. Absolutely no one is judging him, no one is judging _anyone_ , and that’s exactly what he loves about being here. He’ll definitely have to tell Oliver to host more get-togethers like this, and to make sure to invite him to every single one of them. He’ll also have to make sure to thank Ashley for begging him to come and being his designated driver, since at least one of them has to be sober by the end of the night when it’s time to leave. Speaking of time, Ashton should probably get back home soon, now that he’s stayed out much longer than planned. He tells himself that he’ll have just one more beer with Dylan first, and _then_ he’ll ask Ashley to take him home.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

By the time that Ashton comes out of the bathroom, wiping his wet hands on his jeans because there weren’t any towels for him to dry them with, he’s glancing around the room and trying to figure out where Dylan has run off to. The beautiful boy is no longer sitting on the couch, nor does he appear to be anywhere else in the room.

“Has anyone seen Dylan?” he asks the others. Some of them shrug or shake their heads, while the others are too absorbed in their own conversations to hear the question in the first place.

Ashley is the only one with a real answer. “I think he went to the kitchen to get more beers,” she says, eyes glued to the bright screen of her phone. The girl that she has been snogging all night has her head against Ashley’s shoulder, apparently sleeping despite the rest of the noise around her. It’s rather adorable, but Ashton can tease her about it later. Right now, his slightly fuzzy mind is only focusing on Dylan, Dylan, and Dylan.

Having visited Oliver’s house plenty of times, Ashton knows exactly where the kitchen is. He leaves the basement and follows the narrow hallway that leads to the living room, where the kitchen lies just beyond it. Maybe the complete and utter silence upstairs should have been a clue, a warning about what he might find once he got there. But of course Ashton isn’t thinking of anything else, other than wanting to be in Dylan’s presence again.

Apparently, he isn’t the only one who desires such a thing.

Ashton finds that both Dylan and Leighton are inside of the kitchen, but that’s not what makes his heart rip into a million worthless pieces. No, what tears his heart is the sight of Dylan sitting on the kitchen counter with Leighton standing in between his legs, and the sound of smacking lips as they kiss each other hungrily.

While standing next to each other earlier in the basement, Ashton had noticed that Dylan is just a bit taller than Leighton. However, he suddenly looks much smaller and petite with Leighton’s hands gripping his hips possessively. When one of those hands moves down and teasingly pinches his bum, Dylan actually squeals with laughter and pulls away to bury his face in Leighton’s neck, tugging him impossibly closer.

Watching all of this happen just a few feet away, Ashton feels like he’s going to be sick.

Luckily, he doesn’t have enough alcohol in his system this time, so instead of puking all over his shoes and Oliver’s carpet, Ashton silently retreats and returns to the basement. The fact that he feels like a piece of garbage must be visible all over his face, because as soon as Ashley takes a look at him, she’s frowning with concern and getting up from the bean bag chair.

“Ashton?” she calls out to him.

But Ashton feels the burning sensation in the back of his eyes, and he knows that if he stays here any longer, he’ll just end up crying and embarrassing himself all over again. He refuses to let that happen, so he grabs his abandoned sweater and mutters a half-assed goodbye to Oliver, before heading for the door that leads outside. He isn’t surprised when he doesn’t hear the door slam behind him, because of course he’d been followed.

“Ash, wait up!” Ashley shouts, and this time he stops in the grass to wait for her. It’s incredibly silly of her to follow him out here, because now she’s basically locked out, since that particular door only opens from the inside—Oliver’s aunt doesn’t care enough to get it fixed. So now Ashley will have to enter through the front door again, if the two people swapping spit in the kitchen care enough to let her in. He wants to tell this to her, but for some reason, he can’t bring himself to speak at all. She looks even more concerned when she approaches him. “Where are you going? What happened? Did Dylan say something to you?”

Ashton doesn’t mean to laugh, it just comes out all of a sudden, startling them both. But it sounds just as bitter as he feels inside.

“No,” he answers quietly, after swallowing down the huge lump in his throat. “Actually, he was too busy lip-locking with Leighton.”

As the reality of the situation finally begins to sink in, Ashton watches the concern on Ashley’s face turn into sympathy, which he’ll just take as being _pity_. He doesn’t want to be pitied by anyone, though. Like, who cares that he misinterpreted the situation and thought that Dylan was flirting with him this entire time, when he was actually just trying to be nice to an old friend. Who cares that Ashton sucks at paying attention to the little details, just like Ashley had said before, so he hadn’t realized the obvious before seeing it with his own two eyes:

Dylan and Leighton are together.

Dylan doesn’t have those type of feelings for Ashton anymore.

Ashton came to the party for no reason.

“Oh…” Ashley says, barely audible over the blood rushing through Ashton’s ears. “Fuck. Really?”

Ashton just snorts at that, still feeling as bitter as ever. Of course he isn’t trying to be mean to his best friend or anything like that, but he’s hurting inside and this is how he usually deals with things like this: by blaming the world and being angry at everyone, while knowing that it’s entirely his own fault. Everything is always his fault, and he’ll definitely blame himself later, but for now it’s easier to put the blame on anyone _but_ himself.

Ashley doesn’t get offended, since she knows all about Ashton’s screwed up coping mechanisms in the same way that he knows all about hers. That’s why she simply runs a hand through her long, turquoise colored hair, and exhales an equally long sigh.

“Shit. I’m sorry, Ash… I had no idea.”

“Yeah, well.” Ashton shrugs. “Neither did I. But I know now, so I’m just gonna go home. It’s getting pretty late, anyway.”

A few seconds pass by where all that Ashley does is nod slowly. Then, she says, “Alright. Let’s go, then.”

Ashton blinks at her. “Huh?”

“I’m leaving, too, obviously.”

Hearing that, Ashton starts to shake his head. “You don’t have to—”

“Oh shush,” Ashley says, cutting him off. “It’s fine. I’ll just text them and say that you weren’t feeling well, or something.” With a warm smile on her face, she drapes an arm around Ashton’s shoulders and pulls him closer, offering much more comfort than he cares to admit. “Besides, we came here in my car, remember?”

Oh, right. Ashton had completely forgotten about that before storming outside of the basement. His house is definitely not close enough for walking distance, so he doesn’t argue with Ashley as she leads them over to the vehicle. When he starts to apologize for ruining the party for her, she tells him to shut up and gives him a big kiss on the temple as if she were his mother, and when she pulls away, there’s a smudge of lipstick on his skin from where her lips had touched him.

The only difference is that Ashton doesn’t immediately reach up to wipe it away.

***

Ashton hates his life.

Is that an understatement? Yes. Is he being just a little bit overdramatic? Definitely. Whenever shitty things like this happens to him, his brain _always_ takes the opportunity to remind him of every other shitty thing in his life. Why? He doesn’t know. But apparently his brain really hates him and never misses the chance to remind him that he’s a failure and always will be.

That’s precisely why Ashton sulks during his entire shift at the comic book store, as his mind tortures him with images of Dylan and Leighton from the night before. Somehow thoughts of Dylan and Leighton shift into thoughts of his first girlfriend, Jasmine, who broke up with him because he was too inexperienced and she was tired of waiting for him to make a move. Then, those thoughts shift into thoughts of how he’s never really done anything with his life, and everyone that he loves and cares about it is leaving him behind.

Ashton thinks about how lonely he’ll be once school is over, because Ashley has managed to get accepted into the university of her dreams, while Ashton’s only goal is to graduate without having to repeat another year. He thinks about how he has no idea what he wants to do with his life, and how he’ll probably just continue working at Clifford’s Comic Books until it shuts down and then he’ll have nowhere else to go. Ashton doesn’t want to hop from job to job, but that’s probably what he’ll end up doing because he isn’t good at anything that matters.

The worst part of all is that he’ll most likely die alone, because his future spouse will somehow find out about how he puked on a boy at a party back in high school. They’ll be so disgusted with Ashton and break off the engagement right then and there, because who would want to marry a loser like him? No one, that’s who, so he’ll be forced to start a farm in the middle of nowhere and spend the rest of his days talking to pigs and feeding chickens, before slowly dying of loneliness. An incredibly lonely virgin.

If Ashley and Michael take notice of his sour mood, neither of them comment on it, but Ashton is painfully aware of the way that Ashley keeps her eyes on him the entire time. He’s also aware that she’s purposely talking much more than usual, and making funny jokes in hopes that he’ll laugh at them. It’s nice, knowing that his best friend cares so much about him. But Ashton can’t bring himself to feel better, and by the time that it’s his turn to take a fifteen minute break, he’s more than relieved. After grabbing his homemade lunch, Ashton decides that he’ll eat it outside instead of in the backroom, where he would be trapped along with his thoughts.

It’s not as bad, being outside. Sure, Ashton is still plagued with the self-loathing thoughts from before, but at least now he can try to distract himself with his surroundings. He counts the number of white cars that drive by while he eats his tuna sandwich, another random thing that he used to do as a child. It’s peaceful, for the most part, and Ashton is glad for that. He can pretend that everything is fine, as he finishes drinking from his bottled water and continues staring at the busy street past the parking lot. And although he’d still rather be at home, sulking in bed and ignoring the rest of the world, he feels as if he’ll be able to make it through the rest of his shift without dying.

But since the universe hates Ashton almost as much as he hates himself, his solitude is interrupted by the sound of skateboard wheels against the pavement, and Ashton doesn’t recognize who it is until they approach him with a bashful smile and pink-tinged cheeks. Despite his foul mood, he finds himself smiling back.

“Hey,” Luke says, coming to a full stop on his skateboard. He steps off of it and then kicks it up so that he can catch it with his hand.

“Hey, yourself,” Ashton says in return. And although it’s none of his business, nor does he particularly care, he can’t help but point out a certain detail. “You’re not with your friends today.”

It must not be a big deal, because Luke shrugs and casually answers, “They’re not my friends.”

And well, that’s a little strange, but Ashton nods because, again, it’s none of his business. He can kind of understand it, though. There are plenty of people whose name he knows, plenty of people who he used to hang out with, but he’s not close enough to them to call them his friends. So it must be the same for Luke; sometimes he hangs out with those rowdy boys from before and skates with them, but he probably doesn’t see them as being his friends. They’re just people who have something in common with him, and that’s all that there is to it.

Luke awkwardly shifts his weight to the other foot. “So, um… how are you?”

It’s the most standard question in the English language, yet it still manages to take Ashton by surprise. Mainly because Luke never tries to make conversation, and the other day when he’d rambled on and on about the _Young Avengers_ characters was something that Ashton initiated, so it’s kind of weird that he hadn’t simply waved at Ashton before going into the store like he usually does. It’s certainly not a bad thing, though, and Ashton decides that he’ll welcome the company.

“Eh, I’ve had better days,” Ashton admits, and he laughs to ease the weight of those words, just because he’s afraid of sounding like he’s whining.

However, it pleases him when Luke only nods in understanding, instead of giving him a look of pity or demanding to know what’s wrong. Ashton can’t stand it when people do that, especially since it always makes the situation much worse. Thankfully, Luke takes the hint and changes the subject.

“Can I show you something cool?” he asks excitedly, and the little grin on his face tells Ashton which answer he’s really hoping for.

Ashton nods easily. “Sure.” Then, he watches with curious eyes as Luke wastes no time, lifting the skateboard with both hands now to show Ashton what’s on the bottom of it.

It’s not all that surprising when he’s staring at a bunch of superhero stickers on the bottom of the skateboard, but it _is_ surprising to see just how many of them Luke has collected. Like, the stickers literally cover every single inch of the wood. Most of them are on the smaller side, but there a few big stickers spread out as well. Some are almost entirely faded, some of them look brand new.

Luke points at the biggest sticker of them all, and it’s one that looks brand new. It’s a Batman symbol exactly like the one on his wallet, and Ashton finds himself chuckling for some reason. Probably because he thinks that Luke’s obsession with the superheroes is so damn cute.

“I got this one today,” Luke explains, tapping the Batman sticker with his index finger. “I used to already have one in this same spot, but it faded completely and it took me a long time to find another one of the exact same size. I finally did, though, and now the whole thing is complete!”

Luke, in all of his excitement, speaks so quickly that Ashton has a difficult time keeping up with what he’s saying. But, even though it’s literally just a mess of stickers, like something that only a small child would be so enthusiastic about, Ashton supposes that the skateboard actually does look pretty fucking cool. Plus, Luke’s smile is contagious. Ashton is unaware that he’s grinning from ear to ear until Luke looks at him again, blushes, and then stares back down at his feet as if they were the most interesting things in the world.

Ashton doesn’t agree with that decision. He wants Luke to look at him again, and craves the attention that the boy gives him. It’s now that Ashton recalls Luke’s apparent ‘crush’ on him, which is even more obvious than last time, evident from the nervous way that Luke fixes his hair at least five times and chews on his bottom lip, so hard that it may bleed. They’re simply having a casual conversation, but to Luke it probably means much more than that, so Ashton will indulge in him.

“You really love Batman, huh?” he asks, and has to contain the laugh that wants to escape him when Luke’s eyes light up at the mention of the fictional character.

“Yeah, I do.” Luke nods for emphasis. “He’s my favorite hero, actually. And, like, I know that Bruce can be sort of a douche sometimes, but I feel like not a lot of people try to see things from his perspective? Plus, he’s got a fuckin’ awesome ride.”

Ashton properly giggles at that. “I see. And what about the character that you mentioned last time? You know, the alien guy?”

“You mean Noh-Varr? Well, he’s my favorite young avenger but not my favorite overall.” Luke pauses all of a sudden, and the frown of concentration that appears on his face means that he must be thinking of something. Then, he adds, “Although I think that he’s starting to become my most favorite? Um, yeah. Don’t tell Bruce.”

Ashton actually giggles again, but he can’t really help it when Luke is so entertaining. Besides, the way that Luke is smiling at him now must mean that he’d been trying to make Ashton laugh, which says a lot in itself.

“Who’s your favorite superhero?” Luke asks.

Ashton hums in thought, then folds his legs underneath himself so that he’s sitting more comfortably on the hard ground. Because of the fact that Luke is still standing a couple of feet away, and it’s hard to look up at him without squinting since the sun is positioned behind his head, Ashton pats the spot next to him. Unsurprisingly, it takes a few seconds before Luke understands the gesture, but then he tentatively sits down next to Ashton with his skateboard in his lap.

“Well, when I was younger, I guess you can say that I was just a little bit in love with Herc.” Ashton playfully rolls his eyes at the memory. “But my current favorites are Daredevil and Captain America because, well, they’re pretty badass.” He turns to Luke and finds the other boy already staring back at him. “Say, you ever read _Runaways_?”

Luke tilts his head to one side. “You mean, like, the band?”

“No, not the band!” Ashton exclaims, giggling. But he’s used to it because it’s the same response that he always gets. “It’s a comic series, and a really damn good one, too. Also, there’s a crossover with your precious _Young Avengers_ characters, so I think that you’d really like it.”

Luke nods slowly, and he does that thing again where he starts to chew on his bottom lip. It must be a habit that he does unconsciously, like how Ashton chews on his fingernails or beats on objects as if they were drums instead. But that’s not as bad as chewing on his lip all the time, and Ashton almost wants to reach out and make Luke stop. His hand twitches and he knows that he should stop blatantly staring at the action, but then Luke is looking at him again, and there’s a ghost of a smile on his lip when he says:

“Sounds interesting. Will you tell me about it?”

And because there’s nothing else to do and Ashton _loves_ to hear himself talk, he decides that he will. He tells Luke all about the _Runaways_ storyline and gushes about his favorite character, Chase Stein, while Luke listens to him with wide eyes, as if what Ashton is saying is the most interesting thing in the world. And it really isn’t, Ashton knows. He can recall every time that he has ‘geeked out’ to his mother or someone else about his comic books, and they’d pretend that they were interested and tell him that it was nice, when they actually didn’t have a single clue about what he was saying. But, of course comic books aren’t interesting to people who have never read them, just like professional wrestling isn’t interesting to people who don’t watch it and sports aren’t interesting to people who don’t understand how the game is played.

Somehow it’s different when Ashton is talking to Luke. Even though Luke has never read the series himself, he asks questions about it and doesn’t interrupt Ashton when he explains, and best of all, Luke doesn’t get that bored expression on his face as he listens. He genuinely wants to know about the story and all of the characters, and it’s really nice to see that someone actually cares. It’s more than nice, actually.

It’s amazing.

“Will you let me borrow them? Please?” Luke asks, almost sounding desperate. It’s safe to say that Ashton has sucked him in. “I really, really wanna try reading it, now that you’ve told me all of this really cool stuff.”

Ashton spends a moment just thinking about his options. Usually, he doesn’t like to let just anyone touch his comics—especially not after his little brother got Vegemite all over one of them, the little brat. He’s also wary about letting people borrow them, after an old ‘friend’ never returned a really good comic back to him, forcing Ashton to order a second copy online. Of course he doesn’t assume that Luke will do the same, but it never hurts to be cautious.

“Depends,” he finally answers, narrowing his eyes. The false seriousness in his tone grabs Luke’s attention and his baby blue eyes go really wide, anticipating what Ashton will say next. It’s kind of funny. “It depends on… whether or not you can complete this dare.”

“Dare?” Luke furrows his brows. “What kind of dare…?”

Ashton has to pause in order to think again, because he hadn’t actually planned anything and only wanted to see Luke beg for a chance to read the comic book. But now that the younger boy is clearly _very_ interested, he supposes that he should go through with it.

Upon coming up with a dare at last, Ashton points at the skateboard and smirks. “You’ll have to show me a neat trick on this. Only then will I let you borrow my _Runaways_ comics… well, if I decide that the trick is cool enough.”

For the first few seconds, Luke merely stares at him. But then he gets this brave look on his face and the corners of his mouth quirk up into a cocky grin, meaning that he definitely accepts this challenge. Strangely enough, he even huffs out a little laugh, and when Ashton asks what’s so funny, Luke shrugs.

“I mean.” He pauses to laugh again. “If you really wanted to see me do a cool trick, then you could’ve just asked and I would’ve done it. With or without the dare, I would’ve done it for you.”

While Ashton tries to assess the meaning of those words, as well as the weird feeling in his tummy that he gets when he hears them, Luke stands up from the ground and walks a few feet away so that he’s standing in the mostly-empty parking lot. He wordlessly drops his skateboard onto the pavement and puts one foot on it, then proceeds to stand there for a short moment to decide which ‘trick’ he’ll do. Ashton starts to wonder if the boy even _knows_ any, since he’s never seen him do any before. For all he knows, Luke could be faking it.

But as it turns out, Luke isn’t faking anything. Suddenly, he does this thing where he jumps into the air and the skateboard flips so fast underneath his feet that Ashton almost misses it, then he lands on the board again without much trouble. Before Ashton can react to it at all, Luke skates over to one of the parking blocks and jumps on it, the skateboard gliding all the way across the piece of concrete until he lands on the other side without any sort of mishaps. It’s a pretty neat trick, Ashton has to admit, and Luke sends a confident smirk his way before repeating the same move—but he does it faster, this time around.

After that, it kind of hits Ashton like a freight train. Why the hell is he sulking over boys who don’t like him, when there’s another boy who actually _does_ like him and he’s standing right there, being so eager to impress? Sure, Ashton has never met another boy like Dylan, but Luke is also cute, with his pointy nose and shy smiles. So what’s the point in pining over someone that he has no chance with, instead of taking what’s right in front of him? If he’s completely honest with himself, there is no point at all.

Ashton used to pretend that being the only single person _and_ virgin in his small group of friends never bothered him, but it did. And it still does. He may not know what the fuck he’s going to do with his life after school, and he just might always be that loser who works at a comic book store, but if there’s one thing that he has a chance at accomplishing, it’s this.

Luke obviously feels some type of way about him, for some reason that Ashton will probably never come to understand. That’s not what’s important, though. What matters is that he might have the chance to redeem himself from his embarrassing past by losing his virginity before graduation. And here’s how it’ll happen: he’ll do it with a boy who is just as inexperienced as he is, aka Luke, and once that’s out of the way, nothing will stop him from being able to do it with other people in the future. He’ll never have to worry about another girl dumping him because he’s a loser, or a boy losing feelings for him after being puked on at a party because Ashton was too nervous.

He’ll never have to worry about any of that ever again.

It’s definitely a good plan.

“So, I guess you’ll be borrowing my _Runaways_ comics,” Ashton says as Luke approaches him again. The boy appears to be exceptionally pleased by this news, but Ashton doesn’t give him a chance to speak. Feigning sadness, he quickly adds, “I wish that I knew how to skateboard.”

“It’s not as hard as it might seem,” Luke says to him. “You’d probably be really good at it, actually.”

Ashton snorts. “I’m not so sure about that. I can be a bit clumsy sometimes, especially since losing my glasses.”

“Me too… er, the part about being clumsy. I’ve never worn glasses before.” Luke laughs, albeit awkwardly, and he’s standing in this odd position where one of his feet is slightly on top of the other. Ashton has to wonder how someone with such awkward posture had ever learned to skateboard, but his thoughts are interrupted when Luke says in a nervous tone: “I could, um, teach you? Like, if you wanted me to. I could.”

Surprised but very pleased by the offer, Ashton smiles at him, dimples and all. “You’d do that for me?”

Luke nods rapidly. “Of course. We could, like, meet up at the skate park and go from there.”

Ashton almost blurts out his answer immediately, but then he remembers his plan. He has to make sure that Luke _wants_ him, first. Like, really wants him. So instead of saying yes, he lets out a worried sigh and says:

“I don’t know, Luke… I mean, I wouldn’t want to waste your time or anything.”

“You wouldn’t be, I promise,” comes Luke’s instant response. And it’s just like Ashton had hoped. “I have all the time in the world, honestly.”

Taking a moment to study Luke’s expression, Ashton can tell that he really wants this. And why should he deny this cute boy of the very thing that he wants? That would be a silly thing to do, and who knows, maybe he’ll actually have a whole lot of fun, learning to skateboard—even though that’s not his ultimate goal.

It’s still part of the goal, though, so Ashton smiles again. “Okay,” he says at last. “Let’s do this.”

Luke smiles as well. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Ashton shoves a hand into his jean pocket and pulls out his phone. “You should give me your number, that way we can decide on when to do it?”

The eager way that Luke nods almost makes him look like a bobblehead. “Okay, sure. That makes sense.”

A short moment later, Ashton has a brand new contact in his phone and a sense of accomplishment within himself. He has to stop himself from giggling at the way that Luke stares at his phone for several seconds, as if he’s finding it extremely hard to believe that he actually managed to get Ashton’s number. He’s smiling like the most excited boy in the world when he finally puts the device back into his pocket, and Ashton is sure that the pinkness on those cheeks has absolutely nothing to do with the afternoon sun. It’s ridiculously adorable.

“Hey.”

A new voice startles the two of them out of their staring contest, and it’s a voice that only Ashton recognizes. He spins around to find Michael’s head poking out of the door to the comic store, and he’s wearing a deep frown.

“I hope you know that your break ended, like, ten minutes ago,” he announces in the most condescending voice ever.

Ashton is used to it, but he still rolls his eyes. “Thanks for the reminder, Michael Clifford. Where would I ever be without you?”

“Dunno. Probably lying in a ditch somewhere,” Michael teases. With an annoying smile, he disappears back into the store.

Of course the biggest slacker would point out when someone else is slacking. So typical.

“I’m sorry,” Luke blurts out, chewing on his lip again. “I didn’t mean to keep you from working…”

Ashton waves a hand dismissively. “Nah, it’s nothing to worry about. Mike just likes to annoy me because I nag him a lot. It’s a vicious but necessary cycle.” He laughs softly. “So, I’ll see you around?”

The overexcited smile from before makes a reappearance on Luke’s face, and Ashton feels like he can get used to those pearly white teeth.

“Yeah,” Luke replies, waving enthusiastically as Ashton walks backwards towards the door. “Definitely.”

***

They make plans to meet up at the skate park that Friday afternoon.

Ashton has never been to a skate park before, so he has no idea what to expect when he finally arrives. He certainly _didn’t_ expect for there to be so many people, not that it’s extremely packed or anything. But there are enough people to point where he’s unable to spot Luke upon his arrival. In the text that he’d received from the blond boy the day before, Luke had said to meet him at the broken drinking fountain—but since Ashton has never been here before, how the _hell_ is he supposed to know where that is?

As it turns out, it isn’t too difficult to spot the drinking fountain on the other side of the park, after actually using his eyes. Next to the fountain is a little bench with only one person sitting on it, and Ashton automatically begins to smile when he sees the golden fringe. As usual, Luke has his face buried in a comic book, ignoring the world around him. Therefore, it startles him more than it should have when a familiar voice greets him from only a foot away.

“Did I scare you?” Ashton asks in a playful tone, then he winks at the younger boy.

The flustered look on Luke’s face is priceless.

“Sorry,” he murmurs after taking a deep breath. He literally looks a bit shaken up, his eyes wider than normal and his shoulders tense. Ashton almost feels bad for scaring him. “Um. I didn’t see you coming.”

Ashton slowly shakes his head and sits down next to him. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that… are you alright?”

At the question, Luke quickly nods and then clears his throat, apparently snapping out of it. He then turns to Ashton with eager eyes and asks:

“So, did you bring it?”

Ashton snorts, because of course that’s the first thing that he would inquire about. Nevertheless, he nods and starts to remove the backpack that he’d brought with him, which contains his most valuable possessions. Luke never stops staring as Ashton opens the bag and carefully removes the comics that are carefully wrapped in plastic.

“Here you are,” he says, handing them to Luke. “ _Runaways_ , just as promised.”

Luke takes the thin magazines into his hands as if he were instead handling a newborn baby. Ashton can understand it, though. He treats his comics the exact same way, especially the rare ones that are really hard to find nowadays. He never lets those editions leave his bedroom.

“Finally,” Luke whispers, mainly to himself. “I can’t wait to read it!”

Apparently he’d meant those words, because he quickly removes the plastic wrap and opens the cover of the first comic, already beginning to read it. As amusing as that is, reading comics is not what they came to do, so Ashton clears his throat and reminds Luke of their mission.

“Are you going to teach me to skateboard, or are we just going to sit here and read comics all day?”

The sass in his tone makes Luke roll his eyes, but he’s also trying to bite back a smile, so clearly he isn’t annoyed.

“Okay, okay. You’re right.” Luke exhales a small sigh and closes the comic again. “Afterwards, though. I’ll read it afterwards.”

Ashton just laughs, then points at bag sitting on the other side of Luke. “Say, what have you got in there?”

As if suddenly remembering that it’s there, Luke gasps and says, “Oh, right!”

Ashton watches curiously as Luke digs into the bag and begins pulling out a bunch of soft pads and a single helmet. Once the bag is empty, he carefully places the comics that Ashton has just given him into it, saving them for later. Then, he faces Ashton again and smiles.

“You’ll need to wear these,” he explains.

Of course Ashton takes one look at the safety gear and shakes his head, laughing again. “Are you serious? That’s for little kids, I’m pretty sure that I won’t need them. It’s really nice of you to worry about me getting hurt, though.” He gives Luke’s knee a little pat, just to show that he means it.

But Luke doesn’t look so convinced. “Ashton, you’re a beginner. I really think that you should—”

“Nonsense, I’ll be fine,” he stubbornly insists. Feeling confident now, Ashton jumps up from the bench and points to the wooden skateboard sitting between Luke’s feet. “C’mon, I’m ready to give it a shot. Besides, skateboarding can’t be _that_ hard.”

***

As it turns out, skateboarding _is_ that hard, and Ashton falls flat on his ass at least five times and scrapes one of his elbows before his pride is diminished and he takes Luke’s advice, putting on the safety gear.

***

“Don’t let me fall.”

“I won’t.”

“Yeah, sure. That’s exactly what you said the last time, you jerk.”

Luke has the nerve to _laugh_. “Okay, but falling is a part of learning, isn’t it?” Then he drops one of his arms, so that Ashton no longer has both to cling to.

“ _Luke_ ,” Ashton whines, already beginning to lose his balance. He really fucking hates skateboarding, and he doesn’t understand how anyone could possibly stand on this wooden garbage without breaking their neck. Now he has fallen so many times that his body has grown used to the pain, but it isn’t the physical pain that he cares about anymore. It’s the amount of eyes around them that have seen him make a fool of himself.

“I’m letting go now,” Luke says.

“No! Luke, I swear to god—”

On any other day, Ashton would be extremely embarrassed about the sound that he makes when he no longer feels Luke’s hand on his arm, keeping him steady on the skateboard as he glides from one side of the park to the other. But for now, he’s panicking too much to care about what he sounds like, far too focused on the fact that he just might break a limb this time around.

To his luck, Ashton doesn’t fall immediately like he had on most of his other attempts. He manages to stay upright the first few seconds after Luke lets go of him, and every second after that, he feels just a little more secure—a little more _confident_ in himself. In a moment of forgetfulness, he glances over his shoulder to look back at Luke, who is watching him go with the proudest smile. But before Ashton has the chance to smile back, the grin on Luke’s face suddenly turns into worry, and he’s shouting something that Ashton doesn’t quite hear over the sound of other people skating nearby.

It’s no wonder that Ashton crashes into a fence and falls on his ass again. He should have been looking forwards instead of _backwards_ , like Luke had told him to at the beginning of their practice. He’s staring up at the sky from his position on the ground, wondering where his life went wrong and why he’s receiving such punishment, by the time that Luke reaches him and leans over to ask if he’s alright.

“I hate you,” is what Ashton replies with, and it isn’t the first time, either. “I hate skateboarding, too.”

Luke gives him a sympathetic smile and offers a hand to help him up. “At least the helmet came in handy?”

Ashton rolls his eyes harder than each one of his falls combined.

They decide to call it a day, after that, and he’s incredibly grateful for it. His body feels sore all over and he knows that he’ll regret it the next day, during his short Saturday shift at the comic book store. But remembering that he’s the one who got himself into this situation, he decides not to complain. Instead, he’ll toughen up and deal with it because this was just the first day, and he has many more to come. At least it’ll be worth it, in the end.

“I suck at this,” Ashton states matter-of-factly, as he plops down onto the same bench from before. He immediately regrets it when he winces in pain because of his sore bottom.

Luke takes a seat next to him and nods in agreement. “Yeah.”

And well, that’s just plain _rude_ , so Ashton playfully punches him in the arm, a little less than gently.

“Ow!” Luke cries, but then he laughs afterwards and it annoys Ashton even more.

“You weren’t supposed to agree!” he exclaims, sticking his tongue out at the other boy.

Luke is still smiling when he says, “Well, why not? Everybody sucks when they’re first starting out, no matter what it is. With a bit of practice, you’ll start getting better.”

Ashton snorts, rolling his eyes. “After the torture that I went through today, I _hardly_ think that even ten years of practice will get me anywhere. But, thanks for the words of encouragement.”

“Sure it will,” Luke insists. “Because you’re not the type of person to give up on anything.”

A little surprised by that statement, Ashton raises an eyebrow. “And how would you know that?”

Luke merely shrugs, and staring straight forward, he says: “I just know.”

What a cryptic weirdo. Even so, Ashton finds himself believing in those words, whether they’re actually true or not. He blames it on the confidence in Luke’s voice when he’d said it. Ashton could really use that type of confidence.

Pushing those thoughts away for now, he digs into his back pocket and pulls out a couple of crumbled one dollar bills, then holds them out for Luke to take.

“Here.”

Luke stares at him in confusion. “Um…?”

“Buy me a soda?” Ashton asks with a smile. “Get one for yourself, too. I’d get up and do it myself, but I’m pretty sure that I broke my ass bone after falling on the ground so many times, all thanks to you.”

The sound that comes out of Luke’s mouth when he bursts into a fit of giggles is a pleasant one.

“Ass bone? Really? I never knew that such a thing existed,” he says, wearing that contagious smile again.

Ashton huffs indignantly, then says with complete seriousness: “Of course it does, and I just broke mine. Now, are you going to buy me a drink or what? I’m extremely parched, y’know.”

“Okay,” Luke answers, simple as that. He takes the money from Ashton’s hand and stands up from the bench. Just before he runs off to the vending machines, he turns around and asks, “What do you like?”

“Coke is fine.”

“Okay,” he repeats, and then he’s gone.

Ashton only has to wait for a few minutes before Luke returns, handing him his bottle of soda, to which Ashton thanks him kindly. But then he sees the other bottle in Luke’s hand, the one that he chose for himself. It’s some brand of apple juice, and the younger boy hums in delight after taking the first sip.

“Apple juice?” Ashton asks, his eyebrows raised and an amused grin on his face.

Luke stops drinking and looks back at him, but it takes another moment before he recognizes the playfulness of Ashton’s tone. When he does, a blush begins to rise on his cheeks and he looks away, deciding to stare down at his lap instead of looking into Ashton’s eyes. It’s a weird reaction, to say the least.

“I like—” Luke pauses, clears his throat and answers quietly, “I like the taste… I, um, think it’s really good.”

Obviously, Ashton had only been teasing him slightly about choosing such a ‘childish’ beverage, but he hadn’t meant to offend Luke in any way or make him feel bad about drinking it. But it looks like that’s exactly what he did, and before he even realizes what he’s doing, Ashton gently places his free hand on Luke’s shoulder, prompting the other boy to look at him again.

“I like to drink it sometimes, too,” he says, hoping to rid Luke of the insecurity in his eyes.

It seems to work well enough, because Luke starts to smile again, even if he tries to hide it.

They sit in silence for a while, simply enjoying their respective drinks and watching the other kids and teens skateboard around the park. Pretty soon it’ll be sunset, and Ashton knows that he should get home in order to help his mother make dinner for his siblings. He gets a little sad at the thought; not because he minds helping out, no it’s definitely not that. But he’s been having so much fun with Luke so far, and doesn’t want it to have to end so soon. He supposes that the least he can do is make the best of it.

“So,” he starts off, looking away from the group of younger boys in the middle of the park, who are having some sort of contest to see who can do the most tricks. “How did you learn to skateboard so well?”

Luke answers after a short delay. “Practice.”

And Ashton scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Okay, I should’ve seen that one coming.”

Luke laughs under his breath and turns to meet Ashton’s gaze. “What about you? What’s something that you’re really good at?”

For a moment, Ashton merely stares back at the blond boy, trying to come up with something to say. He can’t think of anything, so he answers jokingly: “Well, I can put on my clothes even when I’m half-asleep. In fact, I’m so good that only once did I accidentally wear my underwear on the _outside_ of my jeans.”

Luke laughs again, a little louder this time around. “Oh, c’mon. Everyone’s good at something.”

Ashton shrugs and goes back to watching the group of boys, who are now laughing at something that they find hilarious. “True, but I’m not good at anything that _matters_. So, yeah.”

“I don’t know, I find that hard to believe.” In the corner of his eye, Ashton can tell that Luke is chewing on his lip again. “I mean… does it make you happy? The thing that you’re good at?”

It doesn’t take long at all for Ashton to decide that his hobby _does_ make him happy, so he nods, even if he still doesn’t look at Luke.

He can tell that Luke is smiling, though. Especially when he says, “Then it matters.”

And it’s such a Luke thing to say. Sure, they haven’t been talking for long and they still have a lot to learn about each other, but Ashton can sometimes predict what Luke will say before he even says it.

Now, that’s not to say that Luke is completely predictable or _boring_ , no, he certainly isn’t. But, in the few conversations that they’ve had so far, Luke always finds some way to compliment him or try to raise his self-esteem. It’s as if he’s totally blind to the fact that Ashton is just a loser, a nobody who probably won’t do anything useful with his life. For some odd reason, Luke thinks otherwise, and that makes Ashton feel some type of way that he can’t describe yet.

He doesn’t feel like it’s a bad thing, though. That’s for sure.

“I… really like to draw,” Ashton quietly admits, and he doesn’t know why he’s talking about it now, but he doesn’t stop himself. “Sometimes I draw my own comics and stuff. I’m pretty sure that they’re not actually _good_ , but it’s fun. I like doing it.”

Ashton hadn’t thought of how Luke might react to hearing that, since it’s obviously nothing important, but he really doesn’t expect it when Luke gasps and turns so that he’s facing Ashton with his entire body. Only now does Ashton look back at him again, and it surprises him even more to see just how intrigued Luke is with this new information.

“Wow, really?” he asks, his eyes wide with excitement and something else that could possibly be admiration. “That’s amazing!”

But since Ashton is an idiot who doesn’t know how to take a compliment, he laughs in a bashful manner, shrugging again. “You haven’t even seen them, yet.”

“Yet,” Luke repeats. He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, making Ashton laugh once more. “Does that mean you’ll eventually show them to me someday?”

Just to torture the poor boy, Ashton hums in thought for much longer than necessary, as if his decision needs to be carefully thought over before he says it aloud. Finally, once Luke looks like he’s literally about to start begging, Ashton answers nonchalantly, “Well, I guess that I could.”

It’s sort of cute when Luke asks, “Do you promise?”

Ashton giggles and, just for the hell of it, he reaches out and messes up Luke’s hair, feeling especially pleased when the younger boy whines about it and immediately starts to fix his terrible fringe. And because Ashton decides that it’s not too big of a promise, he answers with: “Sure, why not.”

Perhaps it’s worth the genuine smile that Luke gives him, in the end.

“Okay, I’ll hold you to that.”

***

Over the next couple of weeks, Ashton starts to become very familiar with the skate park and all that it has to offer. They arrange to meet up on the days when he doesn’t have to work at the comic book store after school, so instead he rides his bike straight over to the skate park where Luke is always waiting for him. Ashton learns that Luke goes to Norwest Christian, which is much closer to the park than Richmond is, so it explains why he’s constantly early. And whenever Ashton finally arrives, he always finds Luke sitting on that same bench, reading the comics that Ashton had let him borrow during the first day.

Some days, they don’t skateboard at all. Being the total geeks that they are, sometimes they just sit on the bench and discuss their favorite comic book characters and storylines, and one time they even debated over the age old argument: Marvel vs. DC. At the end of that argument, they decided that it would be best if they simply agreed to disagree—although Ashton has to admit that it was quite fun, listening to the wild arguments that Luke came up with and watching him being so animated.

But, most of the time they only discuss _Runaways_ or _Young Avengers_ , ever since Luke decided to let Ashton borrow his comics in exchange for more issues of _Runaways_. And well, now Ashton is definitely able to understand Luke’s reason for being so incredibly in love with the particular character, Noh-Varr. The guy is hot _and_ funny, so he easily becomes Ashton’s favorite character as well. Still, he must remain faithful to Chase Stein, no matter how irresistible Noh-Varr is.

Ashton still gets butterflies in his tummy when he thinks about the first time that he’d shown a picture of Chase to Luke, and Luke’s immediate response was that the character sort of looked like Ashton. Like, how amazing is that? Ashton doubts that he’s ever received a better compliment in his entire life, and he can only hope that he hadn’t blushed _too_ hard when Luke told him that. He definitely had, though.

But despite the amount of times that they hang out, all of their geek talk, and flirtations, they still haven’t actually _done_ anything yet. As a matter of fact, there are so many instances where Ashton implies, rather obviously, that he enjoys Luke’s presence and certainly wouldn’t mind enjoying him in other ways as well, but Luke either ignores those hints on purpose or he’s as oblivious as a starfish. It’s much more frustrating than it ought to be and Ashton is beginning to grow impatient, but he’s not bold enough to bluntly ask Luke to sleep with him. No, definitely not.

Thus, nothing happens between them. Nothing _ever_ happens between them.

Until one day, something does.

They’re messing around at the skate park as usual, one afternoon. Luke had been right along, when he’d said that with lots of practice, Ashton would be able to skateboard without nearly dying. The latter part is certainly true: Ashton doesn’t fall as much anymore, so that’s obviously progress. However, he probably wouldn’t call what he does _skateboarding_. It’s more like being able to stand on top of the board as it’s moving, and Ashton is able to keep his balance while turning left or right.

So he spends his time going around in circles. Over and over again, since he’s nowhere near skilled enough to use any of the ramps by himself. Sometimes Luke will hold onto him and Ashton will go back and forth across one of the smaller ramps in the park, but that’s it. It’s still pretty fun, though.

“Hey, Luke,” Ashton says, calling out to him. Luke glances up from the comic sitting in his lap to show that he’s listening. “Wanna see me do an ollie?”

That easily gets his full attention and interest, and with an amused grin, Luke nods.

Ashton looks back down at the skateboard beneath his feet. After watching many YouTube tutorials on how to do the specific trick, he should probably feel more confident in his ability to perform it for Luke. However, the truth is the he doesn’t feel confident at all, since this will be the first time that he’s attempting to actually do it. There’s no need to be nervous, though, so he shakes his head and tells himself that it’s just a simple jump.

Then, Ashton actually does jump.

Just Ashton, not the skateboard.

“That’s not an ollie, Ashton.” Luke laughs softly while shaking his head, but it doesn’t sound like he’s making fun of Ashton’s failure. His laugh is much more on the endearing side, as it always is, and that’s precisely what Ashton loves about it.

Of course, he pretends to be offended anyway, wearing a pout as he goes over to sit next to Luke on the bench. Today’s ‘practice’ had been a very lazy one, since Luke spent the majority of it catching up on the latest _Runaways_ issue. Ashton obviously doesn’t mind it, he’s actually really glad that he now has someone to talk about it with, since Ashley gave it a shot once but didn’t find it that interesting. Even so, he really wishes that they’d done more together.

All of a sudden, Ashton gets an idea.

“Oi.” He reaches out and pokes Luke in the side, grinning when the boy giggles and pushes his hand away. “What do you say we do something a little different this time around?”

Luke tilts his head to the side like he always does when he’s confused. “Different?”

“Yeah. Like…” Ashton pauses, licking his lips and gathering the right words. “You know how we usually call it a day and go home by now? Well, it’s still kind of early and I don’t have anything else to do, so… how about we go over to your place instead? I also remember you saying that you wanted to show me your comic book collection, and hey, I’m totally down for that.”

To no surprise at all, Luke begins to chew on his bottom lip as he contemplates his decision. Several times he opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it again and returns to chewing on his lip, looking unsure and conflicted. Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to ask, then.

“It’s okay if you don’t want me to come over, y’know… it was only a suggestion,” Ashton offers, because if he has to hear those words from Luke instead, he knows that it would hurt much more than he cares to admit.

Oddly enough, Luke instantly shakes his head. “No, that’s not it! I mean, like, it’d actually make me really happy if you did come? Um, yeah. My… my parents aren’t home right now, but I don’t think they’d mind if I brought one friend over.”

Ashton’s lips slowly curve up into a pleased grin. “So… is that a yes?”

This time Luke nods without hesitation, grinning back at him. “It’s a definitely.”

They leave the skate park a few minutes after that and head north, Ashton on his bike and Luke on his skateboard, leading the way. Ashton is so excited that he can’t contain the smile on his face, nor does he try to. It’s been a really, really long time since he’s been to the house of a romantic interest, and none of those times were very remarkable.

During the time frame in which he’d been dating Jasmine, he went over to her house once and ate dinner with her parents—which he hadn’t wanted to do at the time, but she kept insisting and he’d only wanted to make her happy. In contrast, he has had the opportunity of visiting Dylan’s house more times than he can count, but those visits had taken place _before_ he confessed to having a crush, so they only hung out as friends and never actually did anything with each other.

Hopefully, Ashton will have much better luck this time around.

It isn’t long before they reach Luke’s neighborhood, which isn’t too far away from the skate park, just like his school. Ashton almost envies that, because he’s always had to travel a longer distance from his home, to school, and then to work afterwards. But Luke’s house is in a very convenient location and he lives in a really nice neighborhood, too. Ashton can already tell what it’ll probably look like on the inside, just from the exterior alone.

Luke closes the door behind them with a click, and then they basically just stand there awkwardly for a few seconds. Ashton takes a moment to glance around, and yup, he’d been right about the interior of the home.

The furniture is nothing too fancy, but it’s not shabby and old, either. In fact, it looks as if someone has been trying to take great care of it so that it’ll last. Beyond the foyer is what appears to be a living room, with a really big television hanging on the wall. Speaking of walls, there are many picture frames hanging on them that contain portraits of the family, and Ashton tries not to giggle when he recognizes a very young Luke Hemmings in some of them. Overall, it looks like the typical home of an average, middle class family. Ashton decides that he likes it.

Suddenly, Luke clears his throat and says, “Um. Can I get you anything to drink, or…?”

“No, thanks. I’m good for now,” Ashton answers politely. Then, he adds, “Can I see your room?” and wants to punch himself right in the face because of how fucking _eager_ he sounds. But, to be fair, he can’t recall a single point in his life where he was smooth instead of dorky.

Thankfully, Luke doesn’t seem to notice a single thing. He simply nods at the question and begins leading Ashton up the staircase located on their right, and the sound of their footsteps echo within Ashton’s ears, though it’s not nearly as loud as his beating heart. The walls on the second floor are similar to those downstairs, containing picture frames and random paintings, though not nearly as many. All of the door are closed so Ashton doesn’t see which ones are bedrooms and which may be a bathroom, but the only one that he cares about is Luke’s, which ends up being the very last one at the end of the hall.

Luke pauses just outside of the room, his hand on the doorknob and a nervous look on his face. He’s staring down at his feet when he says, “Before we go in, can you… promise that you won’t laugh? Please?”

The random request catches Ashton completely off-guard. His initial instinct is to ask why, just because he’s the type of person to question things out of pure curiosity, but then he pays attention to the little details for once: Luke chewing on his lip, refusing to look Ashton in the eyes, and the white of his knuckles as he clenches the doorknob in his fist. Although Ashton still wants to know why Luke assumes that he’d laugh at him, he doesn’t question it. Instead, he nods and gives the other boy a reassuring smile.

“Okay, I promise.”

With how intense Luke looked a moment ago, he doesn’t expect his word to be trusted so easily. But it is, and Luke smiles back at him, even if it’s just a tiny smile that still shows how nervous he is. Regardless of his nerves, he turns the knob and opens the door, walking into the room first with Ashton following close behind.

Ashton instantly comes to understand why Luke had asked him not to laugh.

A single glance around the room and one would think that it belongs to a ten year old boy, instead of a sixteen year old. It’s definitely more fitting for a ten year old, that’s for sure. While Ashton had expected the superhero posters on the wall and the occasional Batman merchandise, he is taken by surprise when he sees some of the other things, like the few stuffed animals sitting on Luke’s bed—three fluffy penguins of varying sizes—as well as the little penguin lamp on his computer desk. There’s even a penguin _night lamp_ , for god’s sake, plugged into the outlet near the bed.

Aside from the penguin obsession, there are also several little Lego figures on the computer desk, and Ashton can only vaguely remember Luke mentioning how he used to love Legos, before getting into comic books. Next to the Lego figures are, of course, action figures such as Batman, Spider-Man, and one of the Incredible Hulk. Although there are a few loose clothing items on the floor and Luke’s bed is only half made, he clearly takes good care of his desk area, which is perfectly organized.

Looking at the room as one big picture, Ashton is certain that not even his little brother, Harry, has this many childish things in his own bedroom. It’s definitely weird and he doesn’t understand it, but not once does he consider making fun of Luke. Besides, he made a promise just a second ago and he intends to keep that promise.

The only comment that Ashton makes is this: “I like your room. It’s really nice.”

Apparently it’s the perfect thing to say, because Luke blushes even more than he already is and quietly thanks Ashton for the compliment. Afterwards, he points to the small bookshelf resting against the wall on the opposite side of the room, which is where he must keep most of his comic books.

“That’s where I keep my comics,” Luke confirms a second later. He begins to walk over to the bookshelf. “Hey, wanna see the first one that I ever bought? It’s still in really good condition, which is surprising because I never used to take care of them when I first started to collect them.”

Ashton starts to nod and say that he would very much like to see the comic, but then his eyes land on something in the corner of the room that he hadn’t noticed before, and he gasps aloud.

“Woah, you have a guitar?” he asks, already moving towards the acoustic instrument. “Luke, please tell me that you don’t actually play guitar and this is just for decoration or something, because if you _do_ , then I’m going to be extremely disappointed that you never told me this before!”

The ridiculous amount of guilt on Luke’s face gives him the answer before the sneaky blond boy even says anything.

Ashton lets out a groan and rolls his eyes, saying, “God, Luke, I can’t believe that you would keep such an awesome secret from me. I feel more betrayed than Thor did when he found out that Loki turned on him.”

“Um… I’m sorry?” Luke offers, but it does nothing to ease the pain and Ashton rolls his eyes for the second time.

“Well then, who taught you and when did you learn?” Ashton moves to pick up the guitar, but stops and glances over at Luke as if to ask permission first. Once Luke gives his consent, Ashton eagerly lifts the instrument and begins to blow off the dust that had started to gather on it.

“My brothers started teaching me when I was ten,” Luke quietly replies.

He says nothing more, so Ashton asks: “Are you any good at it?”

Luke shrugs as nonchalantly as it gets. “I guess? Um. I don’t play guitar that much anymore, and I don’t sing at all, but… a couple of years ago I would learn new songs, and then upload covers of them on YouTube. It was pretty fun, for a while.”

As soon as he hears that little detail, Ashton’s eyes go wide with interest and it’s no surprise at all when he asks, “Can we watch them?”

Luke clearly hesitates, his eyes darting around the room as if looking for an excuse not to do that. Maybe if Ashton actually tries looking at the little details again, then he would see all of this and know not to ask, but of course he doesn’t look for the little details and of course he pleads. Soon enough he will learn to read people a little better, but as for now, ignorance is bliss.

“Please, Luke? I’m sure they’re not bad, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Ashton insists. Just to be even more of a nuance, he quickly adds, “Or, instead of watching the videos, you can just serenade me right now with this guitar. I think that that would be even better, honestly.”

As anticipated, Luke rolls his eyes at the teasing and Ashton’s stupid smirk, but at least he gives in. A few minutes later, they’re both sitting on Luke’s bed, Luke’s laptop in his lap and YouTube opened in the web browser. Ashton sits closely so that their shoulders and arms are touching; mainly to see the computer screen, but also because he likes the physical contact and he thinks that Luke likes it, too.

“Let’s watch that one first,” he says, pointing to the thumbnail on one of Luke’s very first videos.

Luke nods, takes a deep breath that was probably an unconscious act, and then clicks on the link.

There are two things that Ashton learns from watching all of Luke’s old covers. The first thing is that Luke was _such_ a little cutie pie back then, and although it’s only been two years, he’s not nearly as tiny as he used to be. The only thing that doesn’t seem to have changed much is his hair. It’s a bit shorter than it used to be, but it’s still beautifully tragic and Ashton lets him know that, right before ruffling his hair and giggling when Luke tries to return the favor.

The second thing is Luke’s voice. God, his _voice_ —it’s even better than Ashton had imagined it would be. Like, okay, so Luke’s talking voice is clearly that of a teenage boy going through puberty, but he sounds like an actual angel when he begins to sing. Ashton won’t pretend that listening to Luke’s voice doesn’t give him a funny feeling in his chest, because it certainly does.

Luke’s voice is just so lovely. Ashton might be a little in love with it.

“That’s the last one,” Luke murmurs, after the final video has finished. He closes the tab and his laptop, then sets it to the side.

The room is silent for several seconds as neither of them speak. Ashton may not know what Luke is currently thinking about, but there’s only one question on his own mind at the moment that he doesn’t stop himself from asking.

“Why did you stop making videos?”

Just like earlier, Luke merely shrugs at the question, then pulls his knees to his chest and rests his chin on them. Even though he has grown quite a bit since the videos on his YouTube channel, he suddenly looks just as small as the boy within them.

Luke sighs. “I don’t know, I… I just did? And, like, I can’t, um.” He pauses to let out another frustrated sigh. “I can’t sing anymore.”

“What?” Ashton says in disbelief, eyebrows raised. When Luke doesn’t explain himself, Ashton gently nudges him in the side, saying, “What do you mean you can’t sing? Now, I may not have the best memory in the world, but I’m pretty sure that I just listened to you sing a few minutes ago on the videos. You sounded amazing, Luke.”

Luke doesn’t say anything, just continues staring at the wall and looking as if he is in his own little world now. Ashton, on the other hand, finds it difficult to understand how someone can just suddenly lose the ability to sing, especially someone who is obviously really good at it. If there’s anyone in this room who has a horrible voice, it’s himself. He sounds more like a clogged toilet when he sings, but sometimes he does it anyway because it’s fun. It’s obvious that Luke used to really love singing and playing guitar, so what could have possibly happened that made him stop completely?

Ashton doesn’t know the answer to that question, but he knows that he has to get Luke to believe him. Suddenly feeling brave and a little bit reckless, Ashton reaches out with a hand and uses his finger to gently lift Luke’s chin, making the younger boy look at him again. When Luke doesn’t resist or pull away, only stares at Ashton with widened eyes, Ashton smiles at him.

“I meant what I said, you know. About your voice?” He speaks in a much softer tone this time, one that he hopes will get Luke to believe the words that come from his lips, because they are nothing but the truth. “You sounded like an angel, Lukey.”

There are two things that Ashton notices, in this moment. The first is the close proximity of their bodies and how his finger is still touching Luke’s soft skin but Luke doesn’t look like he minds it, doesn’t look weirded out at all. In fact, the other boy is actually leaning into the touch, and Ashton will take that as being a really good sign.

The second thing is, well, Luke’s lips. They’re pink and a little chapped and so close to Ashton’s right now, that he only needs to learn forward a few inches in order to make them touch. Kissing Luke is what Ashton has desired since the very beginning of their budding friendship, and now he thinks that Luke might want that, too, because for a split second, his baby blue eyes glance down to look at Ashton’s lips. People only do that when A, the other person has something on their mouth, or B, they really want to kiss that person. And since Ashton hasn’t eaten anything since lunch time, he knows that it isn’t the first option.

Luke wants to kiss him. Ashton wants to kiss Luke, too.

So he does. Ashton shuts his eyes and closes the small distance between them, pressing his mouth to Luke’s and trying hard not to smile into the kiss when Luke squeaks in surprise. For the first couple of seconds, he doesn’t move his lips. He keeps them still and waits for Luke to kiss him back, so that he knows the other boys really does want this, too. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long at all for Luke to decide, and he presses against Ashton with more purpose, instead of sitting there like a lifeless doll.

Kissing Luke is nice, Ashton decides. _Really_ nice. His hand cups the back of Luke’s neck and he tugs him closer until Luke gets the picture, shifting his body towards Ashton so that they’re more comfortable. The best part about this whole thing is that Luke is perfectly willing to let Ashton take control of the kiss, and he even lets Ashton bite on his lip. Truthfully? Ashton has been wanting to bite on Luke’s lip for him ever since learning of the other boy’s habit. But he doesn’t try to shove his tongue into Luke’s mouth yet, even though he knows that Luke is eager for it.

Ashton is the one to break the kiss eventually, pulling back just enough to look into Luke’s eyes while he catches his breath. Luke stares back at him just as intensely, and Ashton can’t help but think of how he looks so goddamn edible right now: his eyes are wide and his cheeks are pink, lips a little swollen from how hard Ashton just kissed him. He looks absolutely lovely like this. Ashton is sure that he’ll look even lovelier in just a few minutes.

“So?” he says, playing with the hairs at the back of Luke’s neck.

Unexpectedly, Luke starts to giggle. “That… that was nice? Um. Yeah. It was surprising, too, but… not in a bad way.”

That sounds like encouragement to Ashton’s ears, so he grins and asks: “Good. Would you like to do it again?”

Almost like an eager little puppy, Luke nods. “Yes, please.”

How polite of him to even say _please_. Ashton would have to be the cruelest person in the world to deny him, so he leans forward and kisses Luke again. Only this time he doesn’t hold back, his tongue darting out across Luke’s bottom lip until the other boy widens his mouth to accept it. Luke moans into Ashton’s mouth as soon as their tongues come into contact, and he wraps his arms around Ashton’s neck in an effort to pull him closer.

There’s only one proper way that they can get close as possible, though, so Ashton breaks the kiss again and feels exceptionally proud of himself when Luke whines and attempts to chase his lips. But instead of giving Luke what he wants so desperately, Ashton places a hand on the younger boy’s chest and gently pushes him back until he’s lying flat on the mattress. Ashton wastes no time in straddling him and leaning back down to reconnect their lips, kissing Luke much more roughly than before.

Unfortunately, this is about as far as Ashton has gotten with anyone. Like, ever. Aside from having Dylan just a few inches away from his dick, heated make-out sessions is the only type of action that he’s seen. Therefore, he’s only pretending to know what the fuck he’s doing right now, because _someone_ has to be the more experienced person in the situation, right? Throughout the time that they’ve spent together, Luke has never mentioned being with anyone before, but he hadn’t needed to because Ashton can easily differentiate between the experienced and the inexperienced. Luke definitely falls into the latter category.

Even though Ashton is clueless, Luke is even more so, which would probably explain why he’s gone rather stiff beneath Ashton, now that the older boy is on top of him. The kiss has gone a little awkward, too, and Ashton knows that it’s totally not his fault. He’s a damn good kisser, okay! Luke is the one who is no longer moving his lips, but it’s probably just because he’s nervous, so Ashton will try to help him relax.

Without breaking the awkward kiss, Ashton moves his right hand lower until he finds the hem of Luke’s shirt, then he begins slowly inching his hand underneath the fabric until he feels the soft, warm skin of Luke’s tummy. He remembers Jasmine doing this to him on several occasions and it had felt wonderful. He’s sure that Luke will find it to be just as wonderful.

Apparently, Luke does not think that Ashton’s hand caressing his tummy is wonderful at all.

Out of nowhere, Luke lets out what sounds like a strangled cry, then he begins to squirm underneath the weight of Ashton’s body. When Ashton leans up a bit to ask him what’s wrong, he’s met with a hand against his chest as Luke pushes him off, so roughly that it almost hurts and Ashton has to grip the mattress to stop himself from falling off the bed. He hasn’t even had the time to process what the hell just happened, before an uneasy feeling settles deep within his gut at the possibility of somehow hurting Luke unintentionally.

Ashton calls out to him as softly as he can manage. “Luke…?”

By now, the younger boy has basically curled himself into a ball at the other end of the bed, but even if they were close enough to touch, Ashton doesn’t think that Luke would appreciate another ‘reassuring’ touch, even if it’s just on the ankle.

It would be an understatement to say that Luke looks a little panicked at the moment. No, he looks _terrified_ all of a sudden, and the uneasy feeling within Ashton instantly becomes one of pure dread. He doesn’t know what’s wrong, doesn’t know what he did to cause this, he just knows that he needs to fix it immediately because the expression on Luke’s face is frightening him.

But, before Ashton is able to grasp one of the millions of questions flying through his mind in order to ask it, Luke speaks up first.

“My parents,” he blurts out, sounding just as panicked as he looks. He repeats, “My parents will b-be home soon.” Luke spares a brief glance in Ashton’s direction, but when their eyes meet, he instantly looks away and clenches his shut as if that’ll make the bad things go away—whatever those bad things are. “I’m sorry…”

“Oh,” is all that Ashton says at first, because he literally has no idea what else he should say or how he’s supposed to react to whatever is happening here. All that he knows is that it’s not good and now Luke is basically telling him to leave. In fear of making things worse, Ashton doesn’t ask questions or argue.

“Well, um… that’s okay.” He pauses, looks back towards the bedroom door. “So… I guess that I should get going, then?”

Ashton pretends not to notice the stinging feeling in his chest when Luke nods.

“Okay,” he mutters, suddenly feeling both ashamed and dejected.

Ashton slowly stands up from the bed and starts to put his shoes back on, which he had removed just before they began to watch Luke’s old YouTube videos. Once that’s out of the way, he walks towards the door but doesn’t leave immediately. What he does instead is look over his shoulder, back at the boy still lying on the bed and refusing to look at him.

Luke hasn’t said a single word.

Out of desperation to be acknowledged, or maybe out of fear that Luke might hate him now, Ashton asks: “Will I see you tomorrow?”

It almost feels like multiple decades have passed as Ashton anxiously waits for some kind of response. He just needs the reassurance that they’ll be okay eventually, even if things aren’t okay at the moment. He needs to know that he hasn’t just completely ruined their friendship, and that if he walks out of that door, he won’t be unknowingly walking out of Luke’s life as well. Ashton really doesn’t want to think about that possibility, but he can’t help it.

To some miracle, Luke finally answers the question with a single nod, and Ashton no longer feels like his heart is about to stop. Although he still doesn’t want to leave and feels as if he should fix whatever’s wrong as soon as possible, he listens to his instincts and grabs the doorknob.

“Alright,” he says as he opens the door and walks through it. Since there’s nothing else to say, he waves at the figure lying on the bed who continues to pretend that he isn’t there. “See you, then.”

By the time that Ashton descends the staircase, he hears it, the loud slam of Luke’s bedroom door.

He returns home that evening, feeling a little more than confused and shittier than ever.

***

“He hates me. He hates me and it’s all my fault.”

For the fifth time in a row, Ashton bangs his head against the cash register in front of him. He’s allowed to mope and whine at the moment because there aren’t any customers in the store, so he uses this to his advantage and verbally expresses his woes. In other words, he groans frustratingly and bangs his head again.

Ashley sighs and grabs him by the shoulder, stopping him from banging his head for the seventh time.

“Look, don’t you think that you’re being just a little overdramatic?”

Ashton gives her an unimpressed look. “Overdramatic? You think that I’m being ‘overdramatic’? Then, explain to me why Luke has been avoiding me for nearly an entire week. Like, he hasn’t answered any of my texts and you _know_ that he comes in here all the time, yet we haven’t seen him at all. He’s avoiding me because he hates me, and it’s all my fault.”

From across the room and without looking up from the _Dragon Ball Z_ manga in his hands, Michael says, “Probably.”

“You’re not helping, Michael,” Ashely tells him, which is fitting because it’s what she always says when the younger boy is slacking off as well. Turning her attention back to Ashton, she says, “Will you at least tell me what exactly happened? I can’t help if I have no clue what’s going on.”

Sighing, Ashton leans back against the counter and stares up at the ceiling, which is as dramatic as it gets, but it’s necessary for the situation, he thinks. Very necessary indeed.

“I kissed him, he kissed me back. We sort of started making out on his bed, but then… he freaks out all of a sudden and basically tells me to leave, without even explaining anything.” He pauses, sighs again and murmurs, “I don’t know, I just thought that he wanted me.”

At first, Ashley says nothing and Ashton wonders if she’s even listening at all, but then she asks: “Did you ask him if he wanted you?”

“Well, no… but, I thought it was pretty obvious because he has a crush on—”

Without warning, Ashley hits him on the head with a comic book. It doesn’t exactly hurt, per se, but it does take Ashton by surprise and he certainly would not like to have to feel that again.

“Ow?” He frowns at her, blinking in confusion. “What the hell was that for?”

“For being an idiot,” she answers. This time she’s the one looking unimpressed. “Just because someone has a crush on you, doesn’t automatically mean that they want to fuck you, too.”

Ashton scoffs, “Okay, I obviously already know that, but—”

And Ashley hits him again. Ashton whines, annoyed, and tries to grab the book from her but ultimately fails.

“No buts! You can’t always just assume these sort of things, you need consent.” She hits him once more. “Consent.” Twice more. “Consent!” And then a third time, just for good measure and because Ashton’s head makes for a really nice target.

“Okay, okay! Cut it out already!” Finally, Ashton manages to snatch the book from her hand and furiously begins to fix his messed up fringe, all thanks to his so-called best friend. Afterwards, he frowns at her, saying, “Of course I’d _never_ try to do anything without his permission, without knowing whether or not he wanted it, too.”

“But, does he know that?” Ashley asks as soon as he’s finished. “You can’t expect him to know what’s going on in your mind, Ash.”

Ashton opens his mouth and begins to say something stupid, but then he closes it again upon realizing that she may be right. While he never planned to go all the way with Luke without first asking Luke’s feelings on the matter, how was Luke supposed to know that? And, what was Luke supposed to think when Ashton’s hand started going up his shirt? To be honest, he has every right to be upset with Ashton, even if Ashton still thinks that Luke’s reaction had been a bit too dramatic, although not as dramatic as ignoring Ashton for nearly an entire week.

Regardless of what he thinks, the fact remains that Ashley is right. He shouldn’t have assumed anything. He should have asked.

Ashton feels like the world’s biggest asshole, right about now.

“Oh, god,” he groans sadly, then bangs his head against the cash register once more. “What have I done?”

Just before Ashton gives himself a minor concussion, Ashley stops him again.

“Listen, maybe there’s a chance that you can fix this by explaining yourself. Have you tried meeting up with him?”

Ashton shrugs, defeated. “I went to the skate park a couple of times. He wasn’t there.”

Another voice speaks before Ashley gets the chance to.

“You should try visiting his house, then.”

They both glance over to the other side of the room, where Michael is still reading manga instead of restocking the shelves. Does it count as eavesdropping if they’re not exactly keeping their voices down? Maybe. But, Ashton is so desperate for a solution that he doesn’t tell the other boy to fuck off, just yet.

“Go to his house and say that you were just in the neighborhood,” Michael says. “You know, so that you don’t sound like a stalker.”

Ashton rolls his eyes at such a shitty plan. “Which is _exactly_ what a stalker would say. Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Hey, it was just a suggestion,” Michael replies, and then he finally decides to do his job by slowly restocking the shelves.

“I’m actually kind of worried about him, y’know?” Ashton says, and although his words are directed at Ashley, he’s mainly talking to himself at this point. “Like, what if he isn’t just angry at me? What if something bad happened and that’s why he isn’t around? Fuck, I can’t take the suspense.”

Ashley hums in thought, her fingernails tapping against the glass counter as she tries to piece together what she wants to say. In the end, she simply shrugs and lets out another sigh.

“Maybe Michael is right and you really should pay him a visit? Just to make sure that he’s okay. He might still be upset and won’t want to talk to you, but if that’s the case, you can just ask his parents how he’s doing.”

Visiting Luke’s house doesn’t sound like a bad plan, even though it makes Ashton nervous because of what happened last time. But he knows better now, and he really misses hanging out with Luke and talking to him about superheroes and comic books. He misses Luke’s laugh, his annoying habit of always biting his lip, and his witty humor. Ashton misses all of it, maybe even more than he thought that he would. He decides that he needs to go through with this, after all.

Nodding to himself, Ashton mutters, “I guess that I could try.”

***

As soon as his shift is over, Ashton takes his bike and rides over to the Hemmings’ residence. It’s not difficult to remember where it is, so he pedals as fast as he can while also making sure not to get hit by any oncoming vehicles.

Now that he’s alone and he has time to focus, he tries to come up with what he would like to say to Luke as a means of apologizing—that is, if he gets the chance to speak with Luke at all. The mini speech that he comes up with sounds nice and appropriate in his head, and he goes over the entire thing one last time when he’s standing right before the front door.

He can do this. He’s nervous, but he can do this without fucking things up even more.

The door slowly comes open about a minute after he rings the doorbell, and he’s greeted with a head of fluffy golden hair and tired blue eyes. Those eyes instantly go wide as soon as they recognize the boy in front of them. Obviously, Ashton’s presence is completely unexpected, so all that Luke can do is stare at him in surprise—but, he also looks cautious, maybe even a little afraid.

Ashton goes as stiff as a rock. Unable to recall a single word from his apology speech, he blurts out the following:

“I’m sorry. And I mean that I am really, _really_ sorry, Luke. I shouldn’t have, like—I shouldn’t have assumed that you wanted… you know… and I shouldn’t have taken things so fast, I guess? Yeah. And, I definitely should have asked you before doing anything like that—which, by the way, I _was_ going to ask you, but I suppose that I should have asked about the simple things, too, because even if I think that it’s okay, doesn’t mean that you do? But… I didn’t think about any of that, didn’t think that maybe I was making you uncomfortable, because I was only thinking of myself and of what I wanted. I was being selfish, and I’m just… I’m really sorry.”

While he speaks, Luke never stops staring at him with cautious eyes, but something changes within them by the time that Ashton finishes. As he catches his breath from talking without enough pauses, he watches for any sign that what he’s just said has only made things worse. He waits for an angry response, for Luke to lash out at him and tell him to never come back. Ashton waits for that or _something_ , anything at all, and the silence slowly kills him.

After what feels like years, Luke finally opens his mouth to speak, except he doesn’t get the opportunity to do so. Instead, he begins to cough and one of his hands automatically come up to cover his mouth. For the first time since laying eyes on him, Ashton notices that Luke looks much paler than usual.

“Sorry,” he murmurs, and then sniffles right afterwards because his nose a little clogged up. “I, um, I’ve been kind of sick for the past couple of days, so… that’s why I haven’t been around. Um. In case you were wondering.”

Upon hearing that information, only now does Ashton take in the other details, like the redness of Luke’s nose and the bags under his eyes because he probably hasn’t been sleeping well. He’s also still wearing his pajamas, despite it being late afternoon, and there’s a blanket draped over his broad shoulders as well.

Luke sniffles again and, yeah, he’s definitely sick. However, while his illness might explain why he hasn’t been going to the comic book store and the skate park, it doesn’t explain why he ignored the few texts that Ashton has sent him. Therefore, he really had been upset about what had happened between them, but he hasn’t said whether or not he accepts Ashton’s apology. Even though he’s still anxiously waiting to know if he’s been forgiven, Ashton won’t push Luke to do so.

“Oh,” Ashton replies, though quite delayed. “You don’t… look so well. Have you tried, like, taking any medicine?”

Luke nods but then he winces immediately afterwards, as if it hurts to do even that. “Yeah, but it takes a little while to kick in.” He pauses and glances back over his shoulder, seemingly distracted by something. “Actually, I was just in the middle of watching a movie since that usually helps, and um… sorry, would you like to come in?”

The sudden offer has Ashton raising his eyebrows because, well, considering what happened the last time that Luke invited him in, he didn’t think that the boy would choose to do so any time soon. But, Luke keeps glancing over his shoulder and into the living room, clearly eager to get back to watching his movie; and since Ashton has missed him very much, and he knows how boring things can get when you’re sick, he decides to take Luke up on that offer. After stepping into the home and closing the door behind himself, he leaves his bike propped up against the wall near the front door and follows Luke into the living room.

Ashton giggles when he sees the frozen image of Tobey Maguire on the television screen.

“Spider-Man, huh? I wonder how Batman would feel about that.”

It’s a dumb joke, he knows, but Luke laughs out loud anyway, as if it’s the funniest thing that he’s heard all week long. It probably is, since the poor boy has been sick. Ashton certainly doesn’t mind being his source of entertainment for a while.

“I’d tell him not to take it too personally, but the Batman movies just… aren’t that good,” Luke says. He plops down on one end of the long couch, where he seems to have made some sort of mountain of fluff. There are multiple pillows and other blankets strewn along the cushions, and as soon as he’s comfortable, he wraps them around himself until he has successfully formed a cocoon. It’s undeniably cute.

Not wanting to make Luke uncomfortable and still a bit confused on where they stand, Ashton takes a seat on the other end of the couch.

They watch the rest of the movie in silence, for the most part. Ashton learns that Luke is one of those people who will quote almost every line from a movie, if he knows them. Lauren does the same thing, no matter how many times Ashton tries telling her to just be quiet and let everyone else enjoy the movie. But with Luke, Ashton doesn’t mind it as much. In fact, he doesn’t mind it at all, and even finds himself doing the same thing whenever there’s a specific line that he knows by heart. It’s nice because Luke smiles at him, every single time.

By the time that the movie is over and the credits are rolling, Luke has emerged from his cocoon of blankets and pillows. He stretches and lets out a loud yawn, which means that the medicine is definitely working now and he’ll eventually want to take a nap, so Ashton will have to leave. In truth, he doesn’t want to go because they’re currently having a lot of fun, but Luke’s rest is very important for him to heal.

Suddenly, a loud grumbling noise is heard, which sounds a lot like a growling stomach. Ashton glances over at Luke and, just as he’d thought, the blond boy is blushing hard and rubbing his empty stomach.

Ashton has to laugh at that, because only Luke would be embarrassed about his stomach growling.

“Um… I guess that I’m hungry,” Luke mutters, and then he laughs as well.

“Have you eaten anything today?” Ashton inquires.

Before answering, Luke exhales a tired sigh and leans back against the couch with his eyes closed, looking more and more exhausted by the second.

“Just some breakfast cereal. I tried to make lunch earlier, but I get dizzy when I stand for too long.”

“That’s not good,” Ashton says, because it really isn’t. “You need to eat something so that you can gain your strength back, and eating only cereal definitely won’t make you healthy again…” He trails off as a brilliant idea comes to him, and with a smile, he says, “Since you’re too weak to cook, how about I make something for you to eat?”

It comes as no surprise at all when Luke tries to say that he’s fine, Ashton doesn’t have to make something for him to eat, and that he’ll be okay eventually. But in the middle of the lies, Luke’s stomach growls in protest, giving him no choice in the matter.

“I promise not to touch anything that I shouldn’t!” Ashton declares, hopping up from the couch.

Luke rolls his eyes, but it’s obvious that he’s endeared. “Ashton, I already had to convince my own mother at least ten times that she didn’t need to stay home from work and take care of me… I don’t need you babying me, too.”

But, Ashton hardly hears a word that was said because he’s already heading towards the kitchen, his new mission the only thing that’s occupying his thoughts. He’ll make Luke a damn good meal, that’s for sure.

Since there doesn’t appear to be any soup around, Ashton makes sandwiches for the two of them and cuts off the crust on Luke’s bread, after the younger boy bashfully requests for him to do so. He also serves the sandwiches with a side of fruit and glasses of chocolate milk, which Luke eagerly drinks until his own glass is empty and Ashton has to refill it. By the time that Luke finishes eating, he already looks much healthier and happier than before, which boosts Ashton’s ego more than it probably should.

However, Ashton doesn’t realize that he’s probably getting a little too comfortable until after he has finished his second glass of chocolate milk, and they’re waiting for _Spider-Man 2_ to begin—and to be honest, he has no recollection of when they agreed to watch the next movie within the franchise, but now they’re about to and he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

It’s when they’re watching the opening credits that Luke asks, completely out of nowhere, “Do you like me?”

At first Ashton thinks that he may have imagined the question, since it’s totally random and he just barely hears it over the volume of the movie. But, then he turns to Luke and finds the younger boy staring at him expectantly, waiting patiently for an answer—or, waiting _anxiously_ for one, since he’s already chewing on his bottom lip. Ashton merely stares back at him for a moment, and it’s safe to say that he’s definitely been caught off-guard.

“Of course I like you,” he answers carefully, leaning forward to set his empty glass down onto the coffee table.

Because that’s obviously not the answer that Luke wanted or expected, he shakes his head and asks again:

“But do you _like_ me? And, if you do… is that why you kissed me before?”

Honestly? Ashton has no idea what to say to that, no idea how to answer, so he says nothing at first. What he does instead is internally ask himself those same questions: does he like Luke? Yes. Had he enjoyed kissing him? Very yes, until things got awkward and he fucked up. Would he mind kissing Luke again? Definitely not, but only if Luke is the one to initiate it this time around. Does he harbor feelings for Luke, the same type of feelings that he once had for Dylan? Evidently, that’s the one question that Ashton doesn’t know the answer to. Yet, it’s the same one that Luke is asking him to answer right now, in this very moment.

Ashton doesn’t want to hurt Luke’s feelings. He also doesn’t want to lie, though, because that’d be even worse. That’s why he simply shrugs.

“I… haven’t decided yet,” he murmurs, just loud enough for Luke to hear his answer.

Thankfully, the younger boy doesn’t appear to be hurt by the ambiguous answer, nor does he make a big deal out of it.

“Fair enough,” Luke says, turning his attention back to the wide screen in front of them. Ashton assumes that the short, awkward conversation is over now, but then Luke says as an afterthought and without looking away from the screen, “But you do know that I like you, right?”

At a loss for words, Ashton nods. Luke must catch it in the corner of his eye, because he turns away from the movie and looks back at Ashton once more. When their eyes meet, he says in a rather serious tone that Ashton has never heard before:

“So… maybe you should keep that in mind?”

There are so many different things that those words can mean. Even though Ashton nods again in response, he’s not exactly sure what Luke means by it. What exactly should he keep in mind? The fact that Luke has actual feelings for him? The fact that Luke knows what he wants, even if Ashton is still trying to decide? Maybe. And if so, then what Luke is probably trying to say is this: _don’t play around with my feelings_. It’s certainly not an outrageous thing to ask, and Ashton doesn’t want to be _that_ asshole, so he nods for a third time to show that he means it.

After that, Luke is content enough to go back to enjoying the movie, and although Ashton would like to do the same to avoid any further awkward confrontations, he still feels like there are certain things that need to be discussed. It would probably be best to talk about those things now, before he chickens out and forgets all about it.

Thus, Ashton licks his lips and speaks up again, saying, “Would you mind giving me tips on how I can avoid screwing up in the future? You know, like, besides touching you a certain way without asking first… because I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable again.”

The request seems to take Luke by surprise, causing him to merely stare at Ashton with his mouth agape. Then, he appears to be thinking of how he wants to respond to that, as he stares down at his lap and nervously plays with the fabric of the blanket around him.

“It can be anything,” Ashton gently reassures him. “Anything, and I’ll do it—or won’t do it, if it’s something that you really don’t like.”

Luke considers it for another brief moment, but then he nods and starts by saying, “I… I really don’t like having people on top of me.” He pauses, then, and looks up at Ashton to see his reaction to that. When the older boy just nods in understanding, Luke continues. “And, I also don’t like… no, forget it, it’s stupid.”

Ashton quickly shakes his head and scoots to the middle cushion so that they’re sitting closer to one another.

“I’m sure that it isn’t, Luke,” he says softly. “Please tell me?”

Just that little bit of encouragement is all that Luke needs, apparently, because then he nods and takes a deep breath before explaining further.

“I kind of don’t like surprises? I mean, I don’t like _being_ surprised, which is why I don’t enjoy watching horror movies because that’s, like, their primary purpose. It’s a little hard to explain but I, um, I get scared pretty easily, and I know that that’s as lame as it gets, but…”

Luke trails off and returns to silently fiddling with the blanket, and at this point, both of them have forgotten entirely about the movie playing in the background. Ashton feels like this conversation is much more important, though. He may not understand why these particular things make Luke uncomfortable or afraid, but he knows that he has no right to judge or make fun of the other boy.

Besides, no one knows that Ashton has an irrational fear of ducks. Well, it’s definitely not irrational to him, because those little demons are _evil_. He’d be offended if someone decided to make fun of him for that, and since he likes to think of himself as a decent human being, he won’t make fun of Luke for his ‘irrational’ fears, either.

“Okay,” Ashton says, clapping his hands together once. “No more surprises. From now on, you can call me mister predictable!”

Although he genuinely means what he says, he’s also trying to be funny, so he’s really glad when Luke catches that and actually laughs at his silliness. It suddenly occurs to Ashton that that’s all that he wants to do, truthfully. He just wants to make Luke laugh and see him smiling. The bright smile on the blond boy’s face is much more welcoming than the terror that he’d had in his eyes, the day that Ashton had kissed him. Ashton never, ever wants to see that look on Luke’s face again, and he most certainly never wants to be the cause of it.

“Luke, I’m home! How are you feeling, sweetie?”

Somehow, they’d been so focused on each other that neither of them heard the sound of the garage door opening. That’s why it comes as a big surprise when they’re joined by Luke’s mother, Liz, and even though they obviously weren’t doing anything inappropriate, Ashton suddenly feels as guilty as a child who has just been caught eating cookies before dinnertime.

Two pairs of eyes stare back at one.

Liz is the first to speak, after clearing her throat. “Well, hello there,” she says, looking at Ashton. She looks surprised, but thankfully not angry.

Ashton still squeaks when he replies, “Hi.”

“Mum, this is Ashton,” Luke says, finally deciding to speak up. “I wasn’t feeling that good, so I asked if he could stop by for a few minutes because I didn’t wanna bother you while you were at work. I feel much better now, though.”

The relative ease in which Luke utters that lie would normally prompt Ashton to ask questions, but at the moment he’s far too busy feeling awkward and slightly intimidated. Nevertheless, the lie seems to have worked because Liz smiles and stops looking at Ashton suspiciously.

“I’m really happy to hear that,” she says, then leans over the back of the couch to plant a little kiss on Luke’s forehead.

Ashton giggles, Luke whines and quietly asks her not to do such a thing in front of his friend, while Liz turns around and begins to make her way into the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she asks:

“Will you be staying for dinner, Ashton?”

Having not expected that, both Luke and Ashton look to each other with wide eyes. The last time that Ashton can recall having dinner at someone else’s house had been with Ashley and her family, but he doesn’t suppose that it counts for much, since he’s been doing that from the age of ten.

Either way, the situations are much different. Ashley is his best friend that’s more like a sister to him, whereas Luke is… well, Ashton hasn’t decided yet. But the mere thought of having dinner with Luke and his family makes him feel really nervous, because he’s sure that they’d find some reason to dislike him after a while. And now that Luke isn’t avoiding him anymore, Ashton really doesn’t want to risk losing him again.

Especially not so soon.

“Actually, I should probably be getting home now,” Ashton explains, but he almost instantly changes his mind when he sees the disappointment wash over Luke’s face. “I usually start to help my mum make dinner for my siblings, at this hour.”

From within the kitchen, Liz tells him that it’s okay and that there’s always a next time, shall he visit their home again. After that, she says that it was nice meeting him and he repeats the same to her, then Luke offers to walk him to the front door, even though Ashton insists that he stay put to avoid getting dizzy. Of course Luke ignores him and gets up anyway, so Ashton decides not to argue and allows the younger boy to behave as a gentleman.

Once Ashton is standing outside again with his bike on the ground next to him, he faces Luke once more and they both just sort of stare at each other with shy smiles on their faces, trying to think of the appropriate thing to say but not exactly knowing where to start.

“So,” Luke begins, leaning against the doorway. But then he stops, giggles softly for no particular reason, and Ashton’s heart thumps a little faster in his chest. Somehow, it’s the perfect setting: Luke still in his pajamas, the sun falling behind the hills and casting an orange hue on the front porch, making Luke glow in its light. A sudden thought occurs to Ashton, and it’s that Luke is almost too beautiful to be real.

Realizing that he’s just staring like an actual creep, Ashton clears his throat and tries to look elsewhere, but it’s so difficult that he _can’t_.

“So,” he says in return, because that’s smooth. Really smooth. God, he shouldn’t be allowed out of the house. But to be fair, this sudden bashfulness has just come out of nowhere and he doesn’t know why.

Luckily, Luke finally decides on what he wants to say, just before Ashton blurts out something stupid.

“So… I guess that I should thank you for, like, coming over and keeping me company. Also, I accept your apology from earlier, just so you know. And, I’m sorry that I freaked out before? If you want to know the truth, the main reason that I never replied to your texts is because I was way too embarrassed.”

Luke huffs out a small laugh, as if to downplay the whole thing and make fun of himself. Instead of laughing along, Ashton shakes his head in disagreement.

“You don’t have to apologize,” he says with complete seriousness, even though he’s smiling a little, too. “You didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s no reason to apologize when it wasn’t even your fault.”

Although it looks as if he wants to argue at first, Luke finally nods and lets it go. Only a few seconds of silence passes between them before he’s saying something else.

“Can I, like… um… would it be okay if I just…”

Whatever he’s struggling to ask for out of nervousness, Luke eventually gives up with a frustrated sigh. Unexpectedly, he pushes away from the door and closes the space between them, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to one of Ashton’s cheek. It happens so quickly that Ashton almost doesn’t register the brush of Luke’s lips against his skin, almost doesn’t feel the heat radiating from Luke’s body during the short moment that they’re standing so close to each other. But, even though it only lasts for a fraction of a second, it still feels amazing and Ashton’s entire face lights up with joy.

It’s nothing compared to the adorable blush on Luke’s face, though. The younger boy is so flustered by his own actions that he stutters drastically when saying his goodbye.

“Right. So, um—I guess I’ll see you soon? Or, like, whenever I’m well enough and not sick anymore. Um, yeah… bye, I guess.”

And just like that, Luke scrambles back inside and closes the door behind him, leaving Ashton all alone on the front porch.

There are plenty of things in life that Ashton is sure he’ll never be able to fully understand. For instance, he doesn’t understand mathematic equations or why he’s expected to learn them in order to graduate; he doesn’t understand why the sky is blue, how the planets float in space, or why so many people insist on hating Nickelback. And now, standing on this front porch, he doesn’t understand how someone as cute and innocent as Luke Hemmings can possibly exist in this filthy world.

But, perhaps some things aren’t meant to be understood. Maybe they’re just meant to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Ashton thinks that he can handle that.

***

It’s a typical Saturday morning when Ashton walks into Clifford’s Comic Books to begin his brief work shift for the day. Well, technically it’s almost noon, but he still considers it to be morning because he’s extremely tired and can’t bring himself to stop yawning. It’s nothing unusual, though, because he’s always exhausted on the weekends. It’s just the way that it is.

Now, what _is_ unusual is the snide comment directed at him as soon as he walks in the door.

“Oh, look. Someone finally decided to show up.”

Ashton blinks the sleep out of his eyes and looks up when Ashley’s voice greets him; although, can that really be counted as a greeting? Greetings are supposed to polite, but that particular comment had sounded much more on the sarcastic side, maybe even bitter. And sure enough, she’s looking at him with cold eyes and a blank expression, obviously meaning that she hadn’t been joking.

“What do you mean?” he asks, fanning himself with a hand in hopes of cooling down. The bike ride there has left him just a little bit sweaty, since the sun outside is shining down mercilessly upon its victims. He walks over to the counter and leans against it for support. “I’m pretty sure that I’ve never been late to work before. Well, there was that _one_ time, but of course that doesn’t count because—”

Evidently, Ashley isn’t listening to a single word that he’s saying. Or, maybe she is, but she’s purposely choosing to ignore him by walking away in the middle of his sentence. Which, you know, is a _very_ rude thing to do when someone’s talking to you.

“Mike, can you put these back on the shelves?” she asks, handing a small stack of comic books to the younger boy. Michael nods and does as he’s told for once, but to be honest, he’s always been much more inclined to listen to Ashley than he is to Ashton. However, there’s something else that’s going on here, and Ashton can easily sense the tension in the room.

Deciding to find out just what that something is, he walks around to the other side of the counter where Ashley is, but she doesn’t acknowledge his presence and simply busies herself with wiping down the glass counter to remove fingerprints and whatnot.

“What’s up?” Ashton tries, just to see if his suspicions are correct.

Again, she completely ignores him. Hell, she even begins to hum a random tune under her breath as if Ashton isn’t standing there at all. Obviously it kind of hurts to be treated this way by his best friend, especially since he has no idea what he’s done wrong. And, what’s really annoying is that, usually, if someone upsets Ashley or makes her angry, she’ll come right out and say it without holding anything back. The fact that she’s choosing to remain silent about it and play this childish game of giving Ashton the silent treatment is totally out of character.

Thus, Ashton lets out an annoyed sigh before saying, “Okay. Clearly I’ve fucked up in some sort of way, but would it kill you to tell me what’s wrong instead of acting like this? Whatever it is, I’m sure that it can’t be _that_ bad.”

At last, the bright-haired girl stops furiously wiping the counter and slams down the glass cleaner. She turns to Ashton with a deep frown on her face and pouty lips, but after knowing her for so many years, he’s immediately able to see that while Ashley certainly is pissed at him, her current mood is more sad than angry.

“You’re such an asshole,” is the first thing that she says. And, okay, that’s not so surprising. “What the hell happened to you yesterday? You said that you’d be there, and then you just don’t show up at all. Like, you didn’t even answer your phone or _anything_. What the hell, Ash?”

It takes a brief moment of Ashton backtracking in his mind to try and piece together whatever the hell she’s talking about, but once he’s finally able to remember, he really _does_ feel like an asshole.

“Crap… we were supposed to meet up at the movies, weren’t we?” Ashton says, smacking himself on the forehead. Ashley had asked him the morning before if he wanted to go with her that night, and it was kind of automatic when he agreed because he’d had nothing better to do, at the time. He wonders how he could have forgotten such a thing.

“Well?” she prods, hands on her hips as she waits impatiently for an explanation.

To be honest, Ashton doesn’t have one. At least, not at first, but then the memories come flooding back in and he suddenly remembers why he hadn’t gone to the movie theaters to meet her. Sometime after school the day before, Luke had sent him a text, asking if they could meet up at the skate park. Of course Ashton had said yes, since there was plenty of time before he needed to be at the theater.

Unfortunately, things went astray when he got to the park and Luke presented him with the latest issue of _Young Avengers_ , which Ashton had been trying to get his hands on for _days_ , but he’s currently saving every dollar that he has in order to buy a used car. Riding his bike everywhere has long since gotten old, but now he and his mother are saving up to get a second car that’ll be all his, and Ashton couldn’t be happier.

Anyway, reading the _Young Avengers_ update and squealing about it with Luke Hemmings is how Ashton spent the rest of his afternoon. Like, they literally talked about it for hours, until Luke had to get back home for dinner and Ashton had to do the same. His little movie date with Ashley had been completely forgotten about, by the time that he was standing in his kitchen and trying to figure out when the meat pies would be done. To make matters worse, he’d left his phone upstairs in his bedroom, so that explains why he had missed Ashley’s calls. And because he’d been exhausted by the time that he managed to put his younger siblings to bed, he never checked his phone for notifications and simply crashed as soon as he’d landed on his mattress.

It’s no wonder that Ashley is upset with him now. She’s still waiting for an answer, too, so the least that he can do is give her one.

“I… can explain,” he starts slowly, in hopes that he won’t add fuel to the flames. “You’re probably not gonna like it, though.”

It hardly takes a second for Ashley to decide that he’s right about that. Deciding that it’s just not worth her time, she rolls her eyes and walks right past him, disappearing into the backroom of the store. It’s no surprise that Ashton follows her without a second thought, since they’re far from done with this conversation and he needs to apologize, as well as for her to forgive him.

“Look, I’m really sorry, okay?” he blurts out the moment that he walks through the door. “I didn’t mean to forget all about our plans, and obviously I didn’t do it on purpose. If you want, we can see a movie together tonight? I’ll even promise not to forget this time.”

Ashley shakes her head, declining him already. “Just forget it, Ashton. None of it matters anymore.” Sighing, she walks over to one of the empty chairs and plops down into it, then snatches one of Michael’s manga books from where the boy had left it on the table, and pretends to read it as if that will make Ashton go away. Under her breath, she mutters, “You obviously don’t care enough, anyway.”

Honestly? Now she’s just being unfair. If Ashton didn’t care enough, then he wouldn’t be standing here and trying to fix things between them. He genuinely does feel bad for blowing her off, even if it had been completely unintentional. The point is that he’s _trying_ , but she’s just making things more difficult than they have to be.

“Oh, so now _I’m_ the one who doesn’t care?” Ashton scoffs. In the back of his mind, he knows that he should shut up while he’s ahead and simply wait for Ashley to calm down on her own, before he makes things worse, but when he has ever listened to that rational part of himself? Hardly ever, and that’s why he replies with: “You’re the one who doesn’t care anymore. Hell, you didn’t even tell me that you had a girlfriend! Or, whatever the fuck she is to you, I don’t know.”

Unsurprisingly, the mention of the mystery girl from Oliver’s party the previous month catches Ashley’s attention again, at which point she finally stops trying to ignore him. She opens her mouth to say something on the subject, but Ashton cuts her off before she can begin.

“You used to tell me everything, remember? And now it’s like, because I’m not as cool as the rest of your friends, then I’m not worthy of knowing shit about you anymore. Maybe you don’t mean for it to seem this way, but it does and it kind of fuckin’ hurts my feelings, just so you know.”

Shaking her head again, Ashley starts to say, “Ashton—”

“I mean, I don’t even know her name!” he exclaims, cutting her off for the second time. “Like, I get that privacy is important and all, but the least that you can do is introduce me to—”

All of a sudden, there’s a small hand covering his mouth and forbidding him speaking. He frowns at this change of events and glares into the big brown eyes of the girl standing in front of him, who actually looks relieved that she has finally managed to shut him up. How rude.

“God, give someone else a chance to speak, will you?” Ashley grumbles. Once she’s sure that he won’t start going on another tangent, she slowly remove her hand from his mouth and begins to explain her side of things now. “First of all, her name is Lynn. She doesn’t go to our school, but… we met at a party a couple of months back. You know, the really big one that Zakk hosted and you refused to go to? Yeah. Second of all, you would have met her yesterday if only you’d actually shown up. Like, that was the entire point of me inviting you. I had wanted you to meet her so that the three of us could hang out.

“The reason that I never introduced you to her before that is because, well, we weren’t exactly official. And… I guess I just thought that it might’ve been too soon to introduce her to family, since I _do_ count you as family, by the way. But, um, the other day she asked me to be her girlfriend, so I figured that it was about time for you to formally meet her. It’s certainly _not_ because I don’t think that you’re ‘cool enough’, for fucks sake.”

Once Ashton’s brain finally processes all of that, he suddenly feels a little embarrassed and a lot like a horrible best friend, even if there was no way of him knowing that that had been her plan all along. Still, he can’t help but feel guilty for not being there to meet his best friend’s girlfriend, especially since Ashley has always been there when he wanted to introduce her to someone.

Sighing, he murmurs, “I’m sorry, Ashley. I honestly didn’t know… but we can still go out tonight, can’t we? You can invite her and the three of us will have a blast, I’m sure. She seems like a pretty nice girl, and I’m really happy for you.”

For the first time that morning, Ashley actually smiles at him. It’s a small smile, barely noticeable, but it’s definitely there and its presence makes a world of difference in the atmosphere around them.

But, then Ashley is sighing, too. “Can’t. She’s going camping with her family this weekend and won’t be back until Monday.”

“Damn,” he curses. Just then, he’s struck with another idea. “Well, let’s hang out anyway. It’s been a little while since you’ve come over to my place and eaten all of my snacks, hasn’t it?” He smirks when Ashley rolls her eyes at the latter comment. “Besides, there’s… actually someone that I’d like for you to meet, too? I mean, _formally_.”

Intrigued, Ashley quickly nods at the offer and says: “Okay, sure. Who is it?”

***

Later that day, Ashton is regretting every decision that he has ever made in his entire life, up until this point.

“Are you even listening to yourself?!” Ashley exclaims, shoving another handful of M&M’s between her lips. Forgetting all basic manners, she shouts past the food in her mouth: “There’s just _no possible way_ that Batman could ever defeat Superman! That’s like saying that a mouse could defeat a god. You’re delusional if you think otherwise.”

Luke wastes no time in blurting out a counterargument to that proclamation. “See, but that’s where you’re wrong! Superman may have a shit ton of cool powers and whatever else to his advantage, but Batman is _smart_. Smart, and really fucking rich, in case you forgot. All that he has to do is import a bunch of kryptonite from space, load them into a machine gun, and then watch Superman explode into confetti!”

“Yeah, because that asshole Bruce is so rich that he can just import shit from _outer space._ Hah! You’re pulling that one right out of your ass.” Ashley laughs hysterically and rolls her eyes. She then turns to Ashton and says, “Tell me that I’m right, Ash. He’s making that up just because he knows that Batman would never have any real chance against Superman.”

Now both of them are looking to Ashton for his opinions, even though he would much rather be left out of this debate, thanks. As a matter of fact, they’re supposed to be watching the 2003 remake of the _Hulk_ and criticizing it harshly; yet, here they are, discussing who would defeat the other in a fight to the death: Batman or Superman. How this particular topic came to the surface, Ashton has no clue, but he can’t hear the goddamn movie because his two friends won’t stop talking.

“You’re both wrong,” he says, instead of continuing to ignore them like he has for the past fifteen minutes. “The Hulk would smash both of your precious cape-wearing losers into the ground, cased closed. Now stop being so loud, I can’t hear what anyone is saying.”

Suddenly, both Luke and Ashley burst into laughter until there are actual tears rolling down their reddened cheeks. In fact, Ashley laughs so hard that she nearly chokes on a piece of candy, and Ashton has to pat her on the back until she’s able to breathe again. She instantly goes back to laughing, though, and Ashton almost regrets helping her a second ago.

“Holy shit, did you really just say that?” she asks between the giggles still escaping her. “First of all, you should be a comedian because that was hilarious as fuck. Second of all, Superman would squash your little booger monster without a second thought. He’d just fly into the air and then use his laser eyes. Bam. Game over.”

“As if!” Ashton argues. He turns to his opposite side and looks to Luke for help, but finds that he has been betrayed.

“Sorry, but she actually has a point,” Luke tells him. “Batman would have a harder time defeating him and it would take a bit of strategy, but in the end, he just has to ship the Hulk straight to Antarctica or something. Problem solved.”

Ashton stares at the other boy in disbelief. “Wow. That is actually _the_ worst argument that I have ever heard in my entire life.” He turns back to Ashley and points an accusatory finger at her. “Yours, too! Both of you should be ashamed of yourself, and while you’re at it, you should learn to give the Hulk a bit more credit. He’s unstoppable.”

Ashley snorts obnoxiously. “Yeah. Okay, Ashton. Keep on telling that to yourself, if it makes you feel better.” She stands up from the couch a moment later and stretches her legs, then says, “Fuck, I laughed so hard that I nearly pissed myself. Feel free to continue discussing your lame heroes while I’m in the bathroom.”

They watch as she turns her back to them and disappears down the narrow hallway. As soon as she’s out of earshot, Ashton says:

“Quick, eat as many M&M’s as possible before she comes back and devours the rest!”

That makes Luke giggle in the most adorable way, but he takes Ashton’s wise advice and digs into the bowl of candy sitting on the coffee table in front of them. It’s mostly empty now, thanks to Ashley, but Ashton will admit that he’d also eaten some while waiting for the two of them to show up, a couple of hours ago.

To be honest, he should have done this much sooner. Hanging out with Luke and Ashley at the same time has been both annoying _and_ entertaining so far, because there is no holding back in their conversations. Sure, Luke was a little shy at first, but after only ten minutes of listening to Ashley geek out over some new comic book that she recently ordered online, he realized that there was nothing to fear. And there certainly isn’t, because all of them are as geeky as it gets.

All of a sudden, Luke says, “Can I ask you something a little personal?”

Because Ashton is currently busy sorting through the different colored M&M candies in his palm, he nods after a short delay. Ever since he was a little boy, he’s had this habit of sorting his candies by color and then eating them in a specific order. He always saves his favorite color for last, as if that somehow makes it taste better. Of course he knows that there is no real difference, but he does it anyway.

“Have you and Ashley ever… you know… dated?”

This time Ashton is the one who chokes on the candy in his mouth, and he promptly spits it out after Luke gives him one hard pat on the back. After catching his breath, he wrinkles his nose at the odd question.

“God, no, never. That’s—no way, that’s gross… er, not to say that _she’s_ gross or anything, no, definitely not! I mean, Ashley is a _very_ beautiful and intelligent girl but we’ve never been that way with each other. She’s more like a sister to me, I guess? Yeah, pretty much.”

“Oh,” Luke murmurs, chewing slowly on an M&M. “So you’ve known each other for a really long time, then?”

Ashton nods. “Yup, since we were ten years old.”

“Aw. Did you befriend each other on the swings?” he teases, then laughs after Ashton flips him off.

“Actually, a boy kept tugging on her braids, so one time she turned around to punch him in the face but I just so happened to be in the way. I guess that she felt bad for giving me a bloody nose, so after she came back to school from being suspended for a few days, she gave me this really big cookie in the shape of Wolverine’s head. We’ve been best friends ever since then.”

Although it had hurt to be punched in the nose and Ashton is pretty sure that he’d cried all the way to the nurse’s office, it’s still one of his favorite memories. Besides, it resulted in him having a beautiful friendship with the most down-to-earth person that he’s ever met, so how could he not love it?

It’s also pretty funny, which is why Luke laughs softly.

“That’s amazing.”

“It is,” Ashton agrees. He then takes a moment to look at Luke, and with a teasing grin, he says, “Why’d you ask, by the way? Was it out of pure curiosity, or do you suddenly have the hots for Ashley? I mean, if you like the dangerous type, I don’t think that she’ll disappoint you.”

The way that Luke’s jaw drops and his eyes go as wide as saucers is _priceless_.

“Wha—no! Of course not! I was just curious because, um, I don’t know… you two seem really close? But I swear that I’m not, like, trying to get with her or anything, I’m really not…”

“Relax, Luke!” Ashton says, cackling. “I was only teasing you. Besides, she has a girlfriend at the moment, anyway. Even if she didn’t, I know for a fact that she has a thing for older guys.” He winks at the younger boy and leans forward, grabbing another handful of candy. As he chews them, he says, “Thanks for letting me know that you’re not trying to ‘get with’ her, though. ‘Cause if you were, then I might’ve gotten jealous.”

One day Ashton will learn to keep his mouth shut. One day he really will. Sadly, today is not that day, and he’s completely unaware of the implication behind those words until Luke makes it obvious, because of course he won’t ignore that teensy little slip-up.

“You mean… you mean to say that you would be jealous if I liked her instead of you?”

Ashton stops chewing and freezes altogether, feeling a blush begin to rise on his cheeks. He really, _really_ needs to learn to keep his mouth shut in order to avoid embarrassing moments like this in the future. Seriously.

Without looking at Luke, because he knows that he’ll just end up blushing even more, he attempts to save his dignity.

“It’s… not what you’re probably thinking,” Ashton insists, anxiously shoving even more M&M’s into his mouth. “It was just a joke.”

Luke tilts his head to the side, amused. “A joke?”

“Yeah. Like, I only meant it in a friendly way.”

“A friendly way?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Quit mocking me!” Ashton whines. He grabs one of the small throw pillows that they keep on the couch, and playfully hits Luke with it when the younger boy begins laughing at him. Luke immediately grabs the other one in order to defend himself, and somehow they’re having a pillow fight right there in the living room.

“Ahem.”

Startled by someone loudly clearing their throat, both boys come to a sudden halt. Of course they’d been too absorbed into their own world to notice Ashley’s return, and now she’s standing there with her arms folded across her chest and a wicked grin on her lips.

“I hope that I’m not interrupting anything?” she teases, since that’s her _job_. “I can leave, if you want.”

Irritated—or, more like embarrassed—Ashton rolls his eyes and scoots back over on the couch to make room for her. A few minutes later they’re back to debating on the strengths and weaknesses of certain superheroes, and it’s as if Ashley has completely forgotten about the adorable moment that she interrupted when she walked back into the room. But every now and then, Ashton catches Luke staring at him in some type of way. Whenever their eyes meet, Luke instantly looks away, smiling bashfully.

Each time that it happens, it never fails to make Ashton’s heart beat just a little quicker in his chest.

***

Eventually, Luke’s dad arrives to pick him up, ending the wonderful fun that the three of them had been having together. However, Ashley stays over for the night so Ashton doesn’t feel too lonely when the blond boy leaves.

One of the best things about having Ashley as his best friend is that they can do things like this. She can spend the night at his house without it meaning anything more than just two friends sharing a room, even though society likes to assume otherwise, just because they’re of different genders. It’s been a really long time since they last did this particular thing, but they used to have little sleepovers quite often when they were children. And just like old times, Ashton lets her have the bed while he makes himself a comfortable pile of blankets and pillows on the floor.

Also just like old times, they don’t actually go to sleep as soon as they’re lying comfortably in their respective places.

“Ash?”

“Hm?”

“So when are you and Luke gonna bone each other?”

Luckily, there isn’t any candy in Ashton’s mouth for him to choke on this time. But, it still feels like he briefly chokes on air when she has the nerve to ask such a question, and he has the most childish pout on his face now that she’s laughing at his reaction.

“Excuse me, but we’re taking things slow! And… and it’s none of your business, either, so stay out of it.” Ashton groans, embarrassed, and pulls the covers up over his face, even though it’s too dark in the small room for her to see his obvious blush. “Besides, I haven’t asked about what you and Lynn get up to, so.”

The sound of the mattress creaking is accompanied by the sound of his sheets ruffling, meaning that Ashley is turning over to look down at him now; though, he doesn’t try to meet her gaze.

“Hey, I wouldn’t mind it if you did ask. I’ve got nothing to hide,” she says, plain and simple. “I mean, she and I haven’t done anything _too_ kinky…”

Ashton groans again, because he really doesn’t want to hear about his best friend’s sex life. “For the love of god, shut up already!”

Even so, he’s laughing with her afterwards because it’s all in good fun. But if Ashton is being honest with himself, there probably aren’t too many things that he wouldn’t be comfortable enough to talk to her about. Only Ashley knows his deepest secrets, in the same way that only he knows hers. He loves that they’ve always had a strong level of trust between them.

“But in all seriousness,” Ashley continues, “that boy is head over heels for you, Ash.”

The honesty behind those words takes Ashton by surprise, since he can tell that she’s no longer joking or simply teasing him.

“How would you know?” he asks cautiously.

“Um, because it’s obvious? Especially when he looks at you as if you had the ability to shit golden bricks.”

Normally, statements such as that would hardly make Ashton flinch. However, his entire body seems to react to just those words alone, and he thinks that it’s really stupid for various reasons. First of all, it’s definitely not true. Yes, Luke has a crush on him, but what she’s implying is that the younger boy’s feelings are much stronger than that. Second of all, it’s just not possible. Why would anyone fall in love with Ashton, the geek who works at a comic book store and doesn’t have anything else going for him?

The answer is that they don’t. They won’t. And it doesn’t make sense for him to get his hopes up that someday, someone actually will fall for him.

Suddenly, Ashley lets out a really long yawn. “It’s good that you aren’t rushing things, though. Believe me when I say that there isn’t anything worse. I had to learn that the hard way.”

In the darkness, Ashton whispers, “Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?”

“Losing your virginity to someone that didn’t really care about you.”

For several seconds, Ashley merely hums to herself, thinking about the question that has been proposed to her. But when she finally does answer, she says it just as casually as if they were instead talking about the weather.

“Nope, not really. But, then again, I never really cared about the whole virginity concept in the first place. I mean, I know that some people do and that’s fine, it’s their body, but I guess that it’s never been a huge thing to me.”

Ashton wishes that he felt the same way about his own virginity. For the longest time, he has wanted to get rid of it, as if it were some kind of burden. He can’t remember when he started to care so much about such a trivial thing, but maybe it started when all of his friends began to have sex. All but himself. He still wants to do it with someone eventually, but recently he hasn’t been thinking about it as much as he used to, back when it was a daily yearning.

He thinks that it might have something to do with Luke. Ashton still desires Luke, still wants to do certain things with him, but the thought of sleeping with the other boy no longer lingers at the back of his mind whenever they’re together. Again, he can’t remember when that began to change, since he’s only _really_ known Luke for about a month now. But something has clearly changed, because he finds himself desiring other things much more than sex.

For instance, he craves the fun conversations that he has with Luke, the sense of pride that swells within him whenever Luke laughs really hard at one of his jokes, and the warmth radiating from Luke’s body when they’re standing or sitting really close together. Ashton craves all of those things, and more.

“I’ll tell you what, though,” Ashley goes on, speaking so softly and quietly. It isn’t hard to tell that she’s starting to doze off. “Your first time will probably be a bit awkward, even if you like the person and you’re positive that they like you just as much. That’s just the way that it is. But, at the same time, it can also be really amazing. You just have to stop worrying so much and just… live in the moment.”

Although Ashton isn’t sure that he understands all of it, he thinks that it’s still good advice. And honestly? He wouldn’t really mind it, if things stayed exactly the way that they are right now. That is, he wouldn’t mind possibly never going all the way with Luke, and them just staying as friends. The benefit of that would be all of the things that he just listed to himself a moment ago, and that’s more than enough.

In fact, it’s perfect.

***

The insistent ringing of notifications on his phone is what wakes Ashton up, about a week later. He lets out a pained groan, exhausted, but also sore from having fallen asleep in the chair at his computer desk. There’s a piece of paper stuck to his cheek because he’s been drooling, and when he snatches it off, he squints at the half-finished homework scribbled on it. Only now does he recall trying to catch up on his homework again, but looks like the boring crap had put him to sleep.

Ashton leans back in the chair and stretches, deciding that he’ll just have to finish the rest of his homework tomorrow, because right now, he’d much rather crawl into bed and pass out again. However, as soon as he starts to get up, another jingle on his phone goes off, signaling that he’s just gotten another text message. He briefly considers ignoring it until the morning, but since he’s a teenager and teens are addicted to their phones—as bitter old people like to frequently remind him—he picks the device up from his desk and squints at the bright screen.

> **From: Lukey (11:34 PM)**
> 
> hey  
>  heyyyy  
>  aShton  
>  come to m y house  
>  :-)

Ashton basically just stares at the texts for several seconds, because for one thing, they’re pretty random. For another thing, who the hell invites someone over when it’s almost midnight? Unless, like, they planned to do certain _things_ of the sexual nature, but Ashton is a hundred percent sure that they’re still not on that level with each other and this isn’t what Luke is hoping for. And lastly, _he really wants to go back to fucking sleep_.

But, does he? No. He replies anyway because he’s probably whipped for this kid.

> **To: Lukey (11:36 PM)**
> 
> well hello to you too  
>  and don’t you think it’s a bit late for slumber parties

Ashton waits for a reply, but when Luke doesn’t text him again after five minutes have passed, he rolls his eyes and decides to resume his plan from before. Thus, Ashton sets his phone back down and heads to the bathroom to take a piss and brush his teeth. Once he’s finished with that, he returns to his room and starts to change into a pair of sweatpants and a plain shirt so that he can sleep, but then his phone lights up again with a new notification. He doesn’t have the willpower to ignore it, even though he tries.

> **From: Lukey (11:57 PM)**
> 
> ash please  
>  i need u

The most recent message has Ashton frowning as he reads it over and over again. He tries telling himself that it’s nothing, Luke is just being his usual strange self, there’s no reason to _worry_. But, his instincts tell him otherwise, so he types out a reply because it never hurts just to make sure.

> **To: Lukey (12:00 AM)**
> 
> what’s wrong?  
>  luke answer your phone im trying to call you  
>  i’ll be there in a few minutes ok?????

At this point, Ashton has no idea what’s going on and he absolutely hates that his mind jumps to the worst conclusions, but what else is he supposed to think when Luke randomly stops responding after saying something like that? It’s obviously not normal, and that’s exactly why Ashton slides a hoodie over himself before quickly leaving his room. He’d already put Harry and Lauren to bed earlier in the night, just before starting on his homework. But since he’s about to leave the house, he makes sure to check on them first and feels relieved when he finds that they’re both sleeping.

Hopefully, he won’t be gone for too long. Hopefully, it’s nothing that serious and Luke is _fine_.

It feels weird, riding his bike along the dark streets at midnight. Only a few times has Ashton snuck out of the house and gone places with his friends, but it’s different because there was always a car waiting for him outside and he was with other people. Now, he feels much more exposed and aware of his surroundings, but there isn’t any time to be afraid of the dark and the unknown. There’s only a single thought on his mind while he rides as fast as he can to Luke’s house, and it’s a thought that he’d rather not say out loud.

By the time that Ashton arrives, he’s pleasantly surprised to see that it had only taken him twenty minutes to get there. However, a lot of things can happen in the span of just twenty minutes, so he abandons his bike on the front lawn and jogs up to the porch, his lungs feeling like they’re on fire as he bangs a fist against the door. He tries really, really hard not to panic when no one answers immediately, but eventually the lock turns and the door comes open, and Ashton is able to breathe again when it’s Luke standing on the other side.

“Ashton!” Luke cheers. He practically jumps on the older boy when he moves forward to hug him. And, okay, so Luke hugging him out of nowhere is pretty random and Ashton is definitely surprised by the sudden affection, but he returns the hug because it honestly feels nice.

Still, Ashton groans in annoyance before saying, “God, Luke, why the hell didn’t you answer your phone? You had me worrying like crazy because I thought that maybe something had happened to you.”

Luke abruptly pulls away from the hug, and the new expression on his face makes him resemble a small child who has just been told that they’re in big trouble. In other words, he looks incredibly guilty.

“I lost it somewhere,” Luke mutters, referring to his phone. But then, just like that, the guilty look disappears from his face and he tries clinging to Ashton again. “I thought you weren’t gonna come, and I was really sad ‘cause I don’t wanna be alone.” He pauses, hiccups, then giggles. “But now you’re here!”

Ashton starts to reply to that, but then his nose picks up the smell of alcohol on Luke’s breath and he notices the younger boy’s lack of balance, as well as the way that he’s looking at Ashton but not _quite_ because he’s unable to focus.

“Are you… drunk?” he asks, brows raised in concern.

Luke shrugs at the question. “Maybe?” he answers in a sing-song voice, and then giggles again for no particular reason at all.

Yeah. He’s definitely drunk.

Because they’re still standing on the porch and he wouldn’t want Luke to catch another cold—he’s only wearing a sleeveless shirt and pajama bottoms with random superheroes on it—Ashton leads Luke inside and shuts the door behind them, making sure to lock it afterwards.

He asks in a whisper, “Where are you parents, Luke?”

“Wedding!” Luke shouts, and upon noticing just how loud he is, he resorts to whispering. “In Melbourne…! My dad—it’s his co-worker who is getting married, I think, and so now they’re in Melbourne for the weekend and won’t be back until tomorrow.” With a sneaky grin, Luke adds, “But we can have fun before that!”

All of a sudden, he’s leading Ashton into the living room by the arm and insisting that he has a nice surprise for the older boy. Once there, Ashton takes in the sight of many empty beer bottles lying on the coffee table and the floor, making the room appear much messier than it actually is. It looks like now that his parents are gone, Luke has taken advantage of that and raided the refrigerator for his dad’s beer. Then, he proceeded to get drunk, text Ashton, and mislead Ashton into believing that he was in trouble or something. He probably hadn’t meant to do that, but still.

“Look! I saved this one just for you.” Luke plops down onto the floor and grabs one of the only unopened bottles of Corona, then holds it up for Ashton to take. He’s smiling so wide and looking so proud of himself for not drinking everything, that Ashton doesn’t even notice himself reaching out to take the bottle until he feels the cool glass against his palm.

Someone in the back of Ashton’s mind tells him to stop being foolish, and to put the beer down because he didn’t come here with the intention of drinking. Now that he knows that Luke is okay (Luke doesn’t look okay) he should just leave and go back home (he doesn’t want to leave) because it’s not his job to babysit drunk blond boys with big smiles and sad eyes. Ashton shouldn’t feel responsible for Luke, shouldn’t indulge in such foolish behavior, shouldn’t care that Luke looks like he’ll burst into tears if Ashton declines his offer.

There are a lot of things that Ashton probably shouldn’t do, but he ignores the voices in the back of his mind and takes a seat next to Luke on the floor amongst the empty bottles of alcohol.

Why? Because, well, he’s definitely whipped.

About half an hour later, Ashton has consumed just two bottles of beer. He would’ve allowed himself more than that, but then he remembers that he arrived on his bike and it really wouldn’t be fun, trying to bike home while drunk. He also doesn’t want to have to call his mother to pick him up after her shift at the diner, since obviously he’s supposed to be at home sleeping and not drinking with boys. Her lectures are the worst and he really doesn’t want to be grounded, so he’ll avoid that at all costs.

In contrast, Luke doesn’t stop drinking. He’s been nursing the same bottle of beer since Ashton got there, but he still drinks from it even though he takes his time in doing so. For the past ten minutes, they’ve been entertaining themselves with a game of Truth or Dare, and now it’s Luke’s turn again.

“Truth or dare?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

Ashton picks truth because he’d already completed a dare on his last turn. He’ll probably continue to pick truth from now on, since Luke keeps making him do really silly dares that aren’t that amusing, like licking his own arm or jumping on the couch.

Once Luke finally decides on a question, he asks:

“What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?”

The question itself is strange and out of place, because up until this point, they’ve mainly been asking each other about smaller things, like _is it true that you dressed as Catwoman last Halloween because Ashley said that you did_ ,or, _would you still fuck Wolverine even if his claws were out the entire time?_

Nevertheless, Ashton decides to tell the truth since that’s the entire point of the game.

“Promise that you won’t laugh?”

Luke nods without hesitation. “Yeah, I promise.”

“Okay, so,” Ashton begins, clearing his throat, “about a year ago, my friends and I went to this party together, and one of those friends was also my crush, at the time, so I guess there was a lot of tension between us? Anyway, to make a long and stupid story short, that night he finally told me that he liked me back, and we kissed. A lot. It was nice. Except… I was so fuckin’ smashed, that I ended up puking on him. Everyone laughed at us, though mainly they laughed at me, and so basically I ruined my chances of being with him because I’m the biggest loser in the world.”

Despite being mostly over the incident, the memory of it still makes Ashton cringe, still makes him angry at himself. Maybe that’s why he starts to go on a mini rant, because Luke is drunk and he’s sort of buzzed and nothing is off-limits right now.

“Ever since then, I’ve hated going to big parties—well, parties in general, to be honest. I hate that I somehow always manage to ruin things for myself, too. I hate that Dylan and I aren’t even friends anymore, because I’m a coward and I ran away when I saw him kissing Leighton, his boyfriend who probably hasn’t puked in his goddamn hair. I also hate that I’m not going anywhere with my life, since I’m not good at anything and I gave up pretending that I am.

“I mean, I can’t even do _simple_ things, like man-up and have sex with my girlfriend of five months, which I guess is the reason that she dumped me. At this rate, I’m probably just gonna be a virgin for the rest of forever, and I hate how everyone says that sex is no big deal but they’re the first ones bragging whenever they ‘get some’. It’s such bullshit, all of it.”

It’s silent between them for several moments, and Ashton starts to wonder if maybe he’d gone too far and said _too_ much. But when he looks at Luke, the other boy appears to be deep in thought—or maybe he really is too drunk to focus on anything and didn’t tune in on a single word that Ashton has just said. Maybe that would be for the best.

However, Luke eventually does speak up. “I think… I think that they’re right about one thing, though. Sex really is just… sex? And I don’t see why some people choose to make a big deal out of whether you’ve done it or not.”

It’s not a bad reply, but because Ashton is currently feeling like a bitter asshole and he’d been hoping for Luke to agree with him, he rolls his eyes and laughs at the blond boy’s naivety.

“Of course _you’d_ say that. You don’t have the same friends that I do, you don’t go to my school where everyone’s sex life is everyone else’s business, and you’re not the one being pressured about it because you’re still a virgin at eighteen. Wait ‘til you’re my age, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.”

Luke slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know, I highly doubt that. No one ever notices me at my school,” he says, matter-of-factly. Then, just as casually, he adds: “Besides, I’m not a virgin.”

At first, Ashton just stares at him. But then he snorts and shakes his head as well, because it’s obviously a lie.

“Luke, you’re drunk. Stop lying.”

“I’m not lying,” the younger boy insists, and he sounds like he legitimately means it. “But, whatever, you don’t have to believe me.”

Again, Ashton stares at him in disbelief. The expression on Luke’s face is an honest one, though, which doesn’t make any sense at all.

Because, like, it just _doesn’t_.

“Really?” Ashton asks, cautiously. “Since when…?”

Luke shrugs, then answers in that same oh-so casual tone, “Since a while ago. About two years now, I think. It happened at a party.”

Two years. If he really is telling the truth, then two years would mean that Luke had been fourteen years old, maybe almost fifteen. Ashton suddenly feels just a little bit uncomfortable, although maybe he shouldn’t, because he knows a couple of people who started having sex at that age, too. It’s not too uncommon, especially nowadays. Unfortunately, lots of young teens even become parents at that age. But this is _Luke_ , and no offense to him, but Ashton finds it incredibly hard to believe that the tiny boy in the YouTube videos managed to get laid before he did.

Just to humor him, Ashton decides to _hypothetically_ believe in that claim.

“Fine, I believe you,” he says, grinning. “Tell me the full story, then, mister experienced.”

Luke rolls his eyes at the teasing, but doesn’t say anything more. He stares down at his lap and chews on his lip for a moment, as if he’s suddenly unsure of whether or not he should speak about it. Or, maybe he just realizes that Ashton has caught him in an obvious lie, and now he wants to back out of it to save himself from the embarrassment.

However, just before Ashton calls him out on his bluff, Luke finally starts to talk.

“Um, okay. So my brother, Jack—he was seventeen, y’know, and he had all of these friends… some were eighteen, nineteen years old. Anyway, they invited him to this party, right? And it was supposed to be, like, really big and stuff. But, mum knew what went on at those sort of parties so she wouldn’t let him go.” Luke pauses briefly, taking another sip of the nearly empty bottle of beer still in his hand. “Jack was so mad about, too, because he’d really wanted to go and already told his cool older friends that he’d be there. Then, on the night of the party, he suddenly asked if I wanted to go to the movies with him, and of course I said yeah. So, mum let him borrow the old car and we left.”

“But you didn’t really go to the movies,” Ashton comments, already knowing where this story leads.

“Nope!” Luke confirms with a sneaky grin. “Jack told me that if I kept my mouth shut, he’d buy me the comic book that I had really wanted but didn’t have enough money for, so I kept my mouth shut. Anyway, we get to the party and there’s like… so many people there, inside and outside of the house. Apparently, a lot of those people knew Jack, and since I’d come with him, they pretended to know me, too.”

Pausing again, Luke stares hard at the bottle in his hand as he recalls the memory. He starts to frown, for some reason.

“And then… then there was this girl,” he continues quietly. “She knew Jack—or, she claimed to. I remember that she kept… she kept saying that I was cute, and that I looked a bit older than I really was. She was one of the few older people there, probably in her early twenties.”

Not particularly liking where this story is going anymore, Ashton asks warily, “What happened?”

Luke hums for a moment before taking another swig, but by now the bottle is already empty, and he lets out a small whining sound upon realizing that. He quickly gets over it, though, and lets it fall the short distance to the floor with the rest of the bottles. Then, he leans back against the couch and continues the lengthy story with his eyes closed.

“Jack had already fucked off with some of his friends, probably went into the backyard to get high or something.” Luke snorts. “He thought that I was so naïve and innocent, thought that I didn’t know what he was doing whenever he hung out with his friends and came back with bloodshot eyes. But I _did_ know, I’ve always known, and I kept my mouth shut.”

Because he’d gone off topic, Ashton brings himself to ask once more, “Luke… what happened?”

“Oh, right. The girl.” Luke pauses, humming again and torturing Ashton with the suspense. “I don’t remember much… well, I do remember drinking with her, laughing with her, and telling her about the Good Charlotte concert that my dad had taken me to recently. We kept doing all of that for a while, I don’t remember how long, but then she kisses me all of a sudden and the room starts spinning. I think I kissed her back, I don’t know.”

Ashton holds his breath as he waits for what’s to come next, but even so, he’s still not prepared for it.

“I remember her taking me upstairs to some dark room. It… it was just the two of us, and everything was still spinning even as she kissed me again, and kept kissing me. I really didn’t want to do anything more than that, especially in someone else’s room with a stranger, but… but she wanted to, she kept insisting and touching me everywhere, and so we did it. All that I can remember is the dark room that wouldn’t stop spinning, and wishing that Jack would come in but he never did, he never…”

When Luke trails off, the living room is so quiet that if it feels as if they’re frozen in time. The one thing that breaks the uneasy silence is the long, tired sigh that he exhales a few seconds later.

“Next thing I know, I’m outside again, puking all over the grass while everyone watches and laughs at me, which I guess is almost like your story, huh? But I don’t remember leaving the room or the girl whose name I didn’t even know. I just remember puking and crying a lot and being sore all over.

“Then Jack, he finally came for me, and he yelled at everyone to stop laughing but they didn’t, of course they didn’t. I just kept… crying, and apologizing to him over and over again, for some reason, maybe because I knew that I’d ruined the party for him? I don’t know. Anyway, we left afterwards, but… it didn’t really feel like it? It’s weird, but like, I still felt like I was at the party, upstairs in the dark room and wishing that Jack would come in to make everything stop.”

Ashton doesn’t even realize that he’s crying until he tries to speak, but he’s unable to swallow down the lump that has formed in his throat, blocking his voice from working. He’s unable to stop the hot tears that leak from his eyes and roll down his cheeks, blurring his vision. Eventually he finds the strength to stop the silent crying, and he reaches up to furiously wipe his eyes, telling himself that he has to be strong. He has to be strong for Luke, right now.

“Does… does Jack know?” Ashton asks, though his voice cracks in the middle of it. “Does he know w-what happened to you, Luke?”

Luke readily shakes his head, and for the first time since closing them, he opens his eyes again. “Nope. I really didn’t want him to get mad at me, so I kept it a secret! You’re the only person who knows… hey, why are you crying?”

Ashton sniffles and rubs at his eyes again. He ignores the question, instead saying, “Luke, you have to tell someone about… what that girl did to you. You have to let someone know what really happened.”

Confused, Luke tilts his head to the side. “I just told you, though, silly!” He giggles, then, due to still being intoxicated.

“No, I meant, like—someone who can actually _help_ _you_ , like your parents, or… I don’t know, maybe try the police?”

“But why would I want to do that?” Luke asks, frowning. “It happened a long time ago… I don’t see what the big deal is, Ashton.”

Ashton doesn’t have the patience. He doesn’t know what it is that suddenly makes him angry; maybe it’s how Luke almost sounds like he doesn’t really care that he was assaulted. Maybe Ashton is angry because it happened in the first place, or because he wasn’t there to stop it. Maybe, just maybe, he’s angry because here is a boy that’s so kindhearted and gentle and someone had the fucking _audacity_ to hurt him in the worst way possible, taking away his innocence and scarring him for life.

As a matter of fact, Ashton isn’t just angry. He’s furious.

Unfortunately, that means being unable to control the words that come from lips, because all of his rational thoughts are being overshadowed by the strong emotions that he feels right now.

“You don’t see what the big deal is? Seriously?” Ashton scoffs. “Maybe it’s because, oh, I don’t know, you were literally raped by someone? I mean, and forgive me if I’m wrong, but that sounds like a pretty big fucking deal to me.”

If it weren’t for his anger and frustration, Ashton would’ve noticed the way that Luke cringes at his harsh words and begins to put a bit of distance between them.

“You just don’t understand,” Luke murmurs, shaking his head. He glances up, looking Ashton in the eye and repeats it, much louder this time and with just as much anger. “You don’t understand shit, so stop trying to tell me what to do and stop pretending that you know how I feel, when you actually don’t know anything!”

The sudden outburst takes Ashton by surprise, since he hadn’t expected Luke to be so adamant about just forgetting what was done to him. And yeah, maybe he doesn’t understand what Luke went through—is currently _still_ going through—because he himself has never had to deal with any type of trauma like that. He’s not even sure if he knows anyone who has, he just knows that it isn’t right and it’s his job to help because Luke is his best friend now. He’s suddenly overwhelmed with a great desire to protect the other boy, keep him safe and make all of the bad feelings go away.

“Luke, listen to me,” Ashton says, and he tries speaking calmly this time despite not feeling calm at all. “I know that I don’t understand what you’re feeling, I can’t _possibly_ understand it, but you just… you just can’t forget about something like that. You have to fight back, you have to—”

“Get out.”

Ashton freezes. “But, Luke…”

“Leave me alone! Just go!” he shouts at the top of his lungs. As if to make himself clear, Luke turns around and faces the other way, refusing to even look at Ashton anymore, and it hurts more than Ashton could have ever imagined.

For the second time, he’s being kicked out of Luke’s home, confused and wondering where he went wrong.

“Okay,” Ashton finally mutters, because arguing is pointless and he doesn’t want things to get worse.

Standing up from the floor, he waits a few seconds before actually walking away, hoping that Luke will change his mind and they can talk things out instead of yelling. But Luke doesn’t change his mind, doesn’t glance over his shoulder at the echo of Ashton’s footsteps as the older boy retreats. He doesn’t even say goodbye after Ashton says it first.

During the bike ride back to his own home, Ashton cries again. He cries without holding back and the wind sweeps his tears away before they have time to properly stain his face.

Just a week ago, he thought that things were perfect. Now, they’re most certainly not.


	2. II

* * *

The next morning, Ashton feels sick to his stomach.

He hadn’t consumed enough alcohol the previous night to actually get sick, but he feels like a piece of shit regardless. It sucks because if he really had woken up with a hangover, at least he’d be able to get rid of the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, now that he knows the truth.

Ashton just doesn’t know how to deal with this. Clearly, the way that he’d reacted the night before hadn’t been the right way to go about it, since Luke screamed at him and told him to leave. It still hurts, remembering the way that Luke looked at him. His voice echoes in Ashton’s head, sounding so angry and broken. Sounding _betrayed_. But, how else was Ashton supposed to react? This is an entirely new field for him, he’s never had to deal with this before and never thought that he eventually would. It’s a strange thing to even think about, but it doesn’t leave his mind all morning, so he’s basically forced to deal with it.

At least some things are beginning to make more sense, like the day that Luke had explained how he doesn’t like having people on top of him, doesn’t like being surprised. It explains why he panicked the day that Ashton had straddled his hips and kissed him. The terror in his eyes, the nervousness in his voice; it’s all because of the traumatic experience that he faced. By kissing and touching him like that, Ashton had unknowingly triggered him, which make him relive some of the painful memories that he wished to forget.

Thinking about that now, Ashton almost starts to cry again. He can’t deal with this, he just can’t, not alone. Not knowing what else to do, he calls Ashley and asks her to come over for a while. She agrees without a second thought, once she hears the sadness in Ashton’s voice.

“Babe, will you please tell me what happened?”

They’ve been sitting together on Ashton’s bed for the past ten minutes, ever since Ashley first arrived. He hasn’t really said a word, just keeps sniffling and trying to contain the tears that want to spill all over again. But there’s a reason that he asked his friend to come over and comfort him, so he supposes that it’s about time he told her that reason.

“I… I went over to Luke’s place, last night,” he begins. “He sent me a text, asking me to come over. So, I did.”

“Yeah?” Ashley wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

Ashton just rolls his eyes. “It’s not what you think. It really isn’t. Luke had—he was drunk when I got there, you see, and I thought that that was weird because I didn’t even _know_ that he drank. Then, he told me… he said that he didn’t want to be alone. His parents weren’t there, so I stayed with him and we drank. We started talking about some things… a lot of things, actually.”

“What did you talk about?” she asks softly, and patiently waits for him to gather himself so that he can explain further.

Even though he trusts Ashley and has never kept secrets from her, this particular one is not for him to tell. And, he wouldn’t be able to bear it if Luke found out that he told someone, then decided to never trust him again. Ashton really doesn’t want that to happen, but he still needs help because he can’t deal with this alone. Therefore, he decides to give her an abridged version of the truth.

Ashton exhales a long, exasperated sigh. “Something happened to him, Ashley… something really, really fucked up. He told me all about it and I just… I said that he should try to get some help, that he should tell someone who could actually make a difference. But, then he just got so _angry_ at me when I suggested that, and he yelled at me to leave. He probably really does hate me this time, and I don’t… I don’t think that I could handle it if he does.”

Feeling himself get upset again, Ashton pauses to take a deep breath. Then, he turns to his friend and asks quietly, “What am I supposed to do?”

Ashley instantly wraps an arm around him and pulls him close to her, so Ashton rests his head on her shoulder and accepts the comforting gesture. It feels nice to be held like this, especially when it feels like he’s falling.

“I’m sorry, Ash… but, it sounds like there’s only one thing that you can do,” Ashley murmurs into his hair.

“And what’s that…?”

“Be there for him when he needs you,” she says, plain and simple. When Ashton pulls back a little to look at her, she’s smiling. “Just being there for someone when they need you is more than enough. Do you remember how you were there for me, last summer? Who knows where I’d be now, if it weren’t for you.”

Ashton remembers the previous summer vividly. He remembers how Ashley used to skip town frequently to meet with a boy who was no good for her. To be honest, Ashton hated the guy from the start, because he was just another stereotypical bad boy who only cared about two things: sex and drugs. He used Ashley for the former and pretended that he was madly in love with her, but in truth, he knew no such thing. He only knew the feeling of a needle in his vein, _that_ was what he loved, and he even tried to get Ashley to start doing it, too. Ashton doesn’t want to imagine what would have happened, had he never gotten Ashley to see that asshole for what he really was.

However, he wouldn’t say that it was all thanks to him. No, definitely not. After all, he’s just a nobody who finds it incredibly difficult to keep his mouth shut, even if it puts his friendship on the line.

God, he really misses Luke.

“Do you think that he’ll ever want to see me again?” he mutters sadly.

Ashley nods with confidence. “Of course he will. I’m betting that he just needs a little time to himself, y’know, to calm down and decide on how he feels. Eventually, he’ll reach out to you. I’m sure of it.”

Although the words are reassuring, Ashton isn’t so sure of that. Last time, Luke had ignored him for nearly a week, and that only came to an end when Ashton confronted him about it. What if the same thing happens again and he loses one of the only people who don’t see him as a complete loser? That would be nothing short of a tragedy.

But, apparently, the universe has other plans. They’re interrupted by the familiar jingle of Ashton’s phone, notifying him of a new text message. He reluctantly leaves Ashley’s embrace since the device is charging on his desk, but as soon as he picks it up and reads who it’s from, his heart stops.

> **From: Lukey (1:27 PM)**
> 
> skate park at 3?

“It’s Luke!” he blurts out, both anxious and excited at once. “And… he wants me to meet him at the park?”

“Woohoo!” Ashley cheers from the bed. She gives him two thumbs up and a wink. “See? It’s not nearly as bad as you were thinking! You really should work on stressing yourself out less often, babe. And now look, everything is back to normal.”

Honestly, Ashton isn’t so sure about that. After the events from the previous night, he wouldn’t really say that suddenly being invited to the skate park the next day is _normal_ , but it’s something. Ashton will take something over nothing. Who knows, maybe Luke really has calmed down and now he wants to reach out, accepting the help that was offered to him.

Either way, Ashton will make sure to be there for him.

***

By the time that he gets to the skate park, Ashton isn’t sure what he should have expected. However, he hadn’t expected to find Luke sitting on their usual bench like he always is, a comic book in his hands and a look of fascination on his face, as he tunes out the rest of the world and only focuses on the lives of his favorite characters. Ashton briefly wonders if that’s the reason Luke enjoys reading comic books so much: they’re an easy distraction from the real world that he’s forced to live in.

Yet, Luke isn’t too distracted to notice the sound of footsteps as the older boy approaches him.

“You’re fifteen minutes late,” is the first thing that he says, without looking up from the comic.

Feeling a little awkward, Ashton just shrugs. “Sorry, I wasn’t really paying attention to the time.”

More like he’d been mentally preparing himself for this moment, but whatever.

Finally, Luke glances up at him with a ghost of a smile on his lips. “S’okay, I wasn’t waiting long. But, look! I finally got to the horrible part where S.H.I.E.L.D force brainwashed Noh-Varr to fight the others. And, fuck, it’s so intense…”

Since Luke goes back to giving his undivided attention to the comic, Ashton leans his bike against the broken water fountain and joins the other boy on the bench. Usually when they’re reading a comic together, Luke will read the words aloud while Ashton follows along. This time appears to be the only exception, though. He remains completely silent, eyes scanning over the pages and occasionally letting out a quiet gasp when something interesting happens. It’s just a little disconcerting, but like Ashley advised him, Ashton tries not to stress over the small things.

Besides, there’s something else that needs to be discussed, in his opinion. That’s why once they’ve been silently sitting there for about five minutes, Ashton decides to speak up at last.

“Listen, Luke. About some of the things that you said last night—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Okay, so Ashton had expected a bit of resistance, but he hadn’t expected to be shut down _that_ quickly. Nevertheless, he decides to try one more time.

“Luke…”

And Luke shuts him down again.

“Leave it, Ashton,” he says, glancing up from the comic to stare into the older boy’s hazel eyes. In a stern but pleading tone, he adds, “Please.”

In the past, Ashton has been unnecessarily stubborn and unable to take a hint. However, this time he listens to the small voices in his head and the boy next to him, keeping his mouth shut for once. If Luke doesn’t want to talk about it and would rather pretend that the previous night never happened, then so be it. Thus, Ashton drops the subject once and for all.

“Okay,” Ashton says with a nod. But just before allowing Luke to go back to reading comic, he makes sure to say what needs to be said. “I just want you to know that I’m here for you. If you ever need me, that is… I’ll be here no matter what. I promise.”

The words were probably the last thing that Luke had expected, which explains his delayed reaction as he simply stares back at Ashton. But, eventually he really does start to smile, and it’s a smile so beautiful that it tickles Ashton from within—despite how corny that is. It’s certainly not an exaggeration, though.

“Thanks,” Luke murmurs, blushing only slightly. He returns to reading the comic shortly after that, but the small smile doesn’t leave his lips and he no longer looks tense. He just looks like Luke. Sweet, innocent little Luke.

Now that he doesn’t have to worry about their friendship being on the verge of crumbling into dust, Ashton begins to relax, too. For the first time since arriving, he takes a long look at the park surrounding them. As usual, there are a lot more people here since it’s the weekend, and all of them are absorbed into their own little worlds, skating around with friends or showing off neat tricks on the ramps. Ashton also notices that it’s much warmer than usual, not a single cloud visible above them. Although it’s been a while since the last time that he actually practiced with Luke’s skateboard, he’s not so sure that he wants to do that today with the heat beating down on him.

Suddenly, Ashton is struck with a marvelous idea. Or, he _hopes_ that it is.

“Hey,” he says, gently nudging the other boy in the side until he has his attention. “It’s pretty hot out today, so how about some ice cream? It’ll be my treat, so no worries. There’s a Macca’s up the street, right? I could really go for a McFlurry, right about now.”

Perhaps he was right about it being a marvelous plan, because Luke finally stops ignoring his presence and actually smiles at that. It’s just another small smile, barely noticeable compared to the smiles on his face when he’s laughing, but it’s something. And, once again, something is much better than nothing.

Thus, Luke shuts the comic book after marking his spot, and stands up from the bench.

“Okay. Let’s go, then.”

***

Everyone has a specific _thing_ that they do whenever they’re nervous, anxious, or they simply have no idea what else to do.

For Ashton, it’s talking. He talks and talks and most of the time, he has no idea what he’s talking about and doesn’t notice when he hops from topic to topic. It’s a very unfortunate habit, but he thinks that it’s much better than sitting in awkward silence, trying to come up with a way to make things comfortable again.

After buying ice cream for Luke and himself, they take a seat at a vacant table because it’s much too hot outside. Luke is silent for the most part, as he slowly licks the ice cream from his spoon, and because Ashton hates awkward silence, he talks. At the moment, he’s telling Luke a story about his super rad experience at Comic Con during the previous year, and how being amongst other geeks made him feel at home. Even though Luke doesn’t ask, Ashton offers to show him some of the neat pictures that he’d taken during the convention, the next time that Luke comes over to his house. In response, Luke gives the faintest nod, but doesn’t say anything.

To be honest, Ashton really hates that things are awkward between them now. He doesn’t know why they are, they just… _are_. Things definitely shouldn’t be awkward, though, because Luke is the same person that he was before Ashton knew of his secret, and Ashton doesn’t think any differently of him. And, why would he? Everyone has at least one dark secret, some more intense than others, but those secrets leave a mark on the person’s life all the same.

For instance, it’s no secret that Ashton doesn’t have a father. It _is_ a secret that sometimes he wonders if his father left because of him, and he wonders if his mother resents him because of that. Of course he knows that it isn’t true, but the thought still plagues him occasionally.

It’s also no secret that Ashley is attracted to more than one gender, but it is a secret that sometimes she doubts herself, because her family constantly tells her that she’s just ‘confused’ or ‘going through a phase’. It’s no secret that Oliver’s aunt lets him do whatever the hell he wants, but it is a secret that he acts out on purpose, in hopes that she’ll actually give him attention for once. It’s a secret that Dylan is always taking care of his alcoholic mother, and Michael lost his virginity to a girl a few years older than him, who worked for his father.

All of Ashton’s friends have secrets, just like everyone else. It doesn’t change who they are in the slightest, and they all deal with those secrets in different ways. So, no, he doesn’t see Luke as a different person, now that he knows the younger boy’s secret. But, it _is_ hard to act as if nothing has changed, when Luke isn’t being all that cooperative.

Ashton will be patient, though. He’ll be patient because he truly, deeply cares about Luke, and obviously Luke cares about him, too, since Ashton is the first and only person that he’s told. Perhaps Luke just needs a bit of time to adjust to this new level of trust between them, just like Ashton is still currently trying to process the truth. It’ll take a bit of time, but it’s worth it.

“So yeah, that’s why I don’t go skinny dipping with Ollie anymore,” Ashton explains, as he finishes up yet another random story. “He’s just like a kid, always pulling pranks whenever he sees the opportunity. And, never again do I want to walk along the side of the road at night in just my undies!”

The silly story about his own humiliation gets a small laugh out of Luke, which is exactly what Ashton had hoped for by telling it. He’s sure that soon enough, things will be right back to normal and the two of them will be able to laugh about things until they cry, just like before.

That is, until a few seconds later when Luke asks out of nowhere: “Do you think that I’m gross?”

Because it’s completely random and Ashton hadn’t expected it, he pauses in the middle of scooping another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and just stares blankly, not knowing where that came from. One thing that he _does_ know is that Luke looks nervous, his eyes staring down at the table and his hands shaking just slightly. Then, Ashton finally catches on to what he means, and it instantly clutches at his heart.

“Of course I don’t think that,” he says, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. Without thinking, Ashton reaches out with one hand and places it on top of Luke’s to comfort him and stop the shaking, but then he almost pulls away upon remembering that Luke is wary about being touched a certain way. However, Luke doesn’t stiffen up or pull his hand away; instead, he actually appears to relax a little, which Ashton will take as a good sign. “You’re not gross, Luke… not at all, I swear.”

Luke’s other hand idly stirs the melting ice cream in his McFlurry cup, and he still doesn’t look up at Ashton, but he does nod at the older boy’s words. And, maybe it’s pathetic, but Ashton has always been a very emotional person and he almost starts to tear up in this moment, because Luke thinks that he’s _gross_. He probably also thinks that what happened to him is partially his own fault, and that makes him a gross person.

But, that’s not true at all. What’s really gross is the piece of shit that sexually assaulted him. What’s gross is that things like this happen to people all the time, every single day, and that some victims are blamed for it. What’s gross is that not enough people tell boys that they can be victims, too.

Instead of saying all of that, Ashton smiles mischievously and says, “Wanna know what’s really gross?” At the question, Luke glances up at him with curious eyes and nods. “Sometimes, Ashley likes to put barbecue sauce on her scrambled eggs.”

The disgusted expression on Luke’s face has to be the most hilarious thing that Ashton’s seen all week long, and when he lets out a roaring laugh, Luke begins to laugh along with him.

“Oh my god, that _is_ gross,” Luke says, grinning from ear to ear. “Wanna hear something worse than that? My older brother, Ben, is lactose intolerant. So, while the rest of us are eating cereal with milk, he will eat cereal with water.”

“Gross!” Ashton exclaims, his nose wrinkled in distaste. “Doesn’t he know that almond milk exists?!”

Luke shrugs. “Yeah, but he says that water tastes better.”

“Jesus… your brother and I need to have a nice long chat, then.”

The two of them end up laughing twice as hard, this time around. They laugh so loudly that some of the other customers glance their way, but they’re too busy looking at each other that they don’t even notice, and that’s what makes it perfect. Luke is laughing again, _really_ laughing, and Ashton is the one making him do that. A sudden thought appears in the back of his mind, and although it’s gone just as quickly as it appears, it still happens. That thought is that Ashton wants to be the one to make Luke laugh, just like this, for the rest of his life.

Once they’ve finished laughing and eating their ice cream while telling each other gross stories, they get up from the table because there’s no reason to continue sitting there. However, as they’re walking past the play area and towards the exit, Ashton stops, getting an idea that is probably too silly even for someone as immature as him. But, sometimes it’s the silliest ideas that turn out to be the greatest ones.

“Ash? What is it?” Luke questions when he turns back around to see why the other boy has stopped.

Ashton simply points to the play area, wiggling his eyebrows and grinning mischievously. Once Luke finally catches onto what he’s hinting at, the younger boy rolls his eyes but starts to smile, too.

“You can’t be serious,” he mutters, but even so, he’s walking back towards Ashton. “We can’t go in there…”

Ashton opens the glass door to the play area and asks, “Why not?”

“Because we’re not… we’re not little kids.” Luke attempts to explain, but he’s chewing on his bottom lip and staring into the big room as if he’s contemplating the offer. “I mean, even though it _does_ look like a lot of fun… won’t we get into trouble?”

“Oh, Lukey boy. Sweet, oblivious Lukey boy,” Ashton laughs, shaking his head. He drapes an arm over Luke’s shoulder and begins leading him into the other room, saying, “In my humble opinion, that just makes it even more fun, doesn’t it?”

And Luke easily agrees with him, which is why he stops trying to be the voice of reason and just goes along with Ashton’s silly plan. As a matter of fact, he’s smiling like the happiest boy in the world as he runs after Ashton to climb into the small, colorful tunnel. The only problem is that the playground really is made for children, so they’re hardly able to fit as they crawl through the little obstacle course. It’s still much more entertaining than sitting at the skate park in the blistering heat, and the entire room is quickly filled with the sound of their laughter.

Unfortunately, they are eventually asked to leave after an entire hour of running around in the play area, which Ashton blames on the fact that Luke kept making loud dolphin noises. Although, they also could’ve been snitched on by the mother who glares daggers at them on their way out.

The fun doesn’t end there, though. Instead of going back to the skate park, they walk down the street and go into the old record store that Ashton loves to visit sometimes. While their main reason for going inside is to escape the heat, the second reason is that Luke has never been to the place before and Ashton finds that absolutely appalling, so he practically drags Luke into the record store with him in order to fix that.

Ashton’s love for music is almost as much as his love for comic books, and he especially loves introducing other people to his favorite bands. That’s why he makes Luke listen to song after song to increase his knowledge of classic rock and all those who came afterwards, and it pleases Ashton greatly when it turns out that Luke knows a lot of the songs already. Maybe the fact that they have similar tastes in music _and_ comics gets Ashton a little too excited, but then again, he’s far too busy being happy to care.

While Luke plays air guitar to a song by Aerosmith, Ashton watches with so much fond in his eyes that it’s ridiculous. It’s still too early for him to notice it right now, but sometime in the distant future, Ashton will look back on this moment and he’ll be able to recognize the warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. Only then will he know exactly what it means.

It’s sunset by the time that they leave the record store, despite being keen on staying forever. But every store has its closing time, so they leave after making a promise to return sometime soon. Luke has to be getting home anyway, since his parents will be back from their trip to Melbourne really soon, and they’ll be wondering where he is. It’s basically automatic when Ashton offers to walk him home, no matter how many times Luke tells him that he doesn’t need to waste his time in doing so.

To Ashton, it isn’t a waste of time at all; he _wants_ to walk Luke home, wants to be in his presence for as long as the other boy will let him. Sure, they’ll see each other tomorrow, but tomorrow feels like a long ways away. Besides, they’re in the middle of a deep conversation about the existence of aliens, and there’s no _way_ that Ashton is going to leave in the middle of that.

“I swear to god that I’m not lying!” Luke insists, gesturing wildly for no real reason at all, but it’s amusing and Ashton giggles. “Stop laughing, we really did see a UFO during the camping trip! Jack saw it, too, that’s how I know that it wasn’t a dream.”

“I believe you, Lukey, calm down.” Still laughing, Ashton reaches up and wipes the tears from his eyes. “I once saw something in the sky, too. At first, I thought that it was a plane or something, but then I looked closer and it became clear that it was definitely no plane at all.”

Luke gasps in shock, and briefly stops walking backwards along the sidewalk. In the most fascinated tone, he says, “You saw a UFO, too?”

Ashton slowly shakes his head for dramatic effect. “No, Luke, it was something even scarier…”

“What was it, then? Tell me!”

Leaning closer, Ashton whispers into the other boy’s ear: “It was Santa’s sleigh.”

He isn’t surprised when Luke pushes him away with the most betrayed look on his face, and Ashton starts to laugh all over again. His laugh is contagious, though, because Luke’s pout quickly turns into an endeared smile, no matter how hard he tries to look annoyed as they continue walking.

“You’re such a jerk,” he grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Aww,” Ashton coos, “you know I’m only teasing you.” He gently bumps Luke’s shoulder with his own, then feels proud of himself when Luke inevitably smiles at him. “See, that’s much better. You look best when you’re smiling.”

With his eyes trained on the sidewalk, Luke chews on his lip for a moment before muttering:

“You can’t just… you can’t just say things like that.”

Ashton tilts his head to the side, feigning innocence. “Things like what, Lukey boy?”

Luke rolls his eyes. “You know what.”

“Well, why not?” he teases, but when he’s greeted with silence, a sudden thought occurs to him. “Wait, does it… make you uncomfortable? ‘Cause I can stop, just say the word.”

Luke rapidly shakes his head. “No! I mean, no, it doesn’t… you don’t.” He pauses, then, to let out a frustrated sigh. “I just—I don’t know what I’m supposed to say? And then I get… I get all flustered because, like, I’m really lame and that’s what lame people do.”

Ashton giggles at that, because to be honest, Luke is way too cute for his own good. He finds himself saying with complete sincerity, “Well, if it helps, I think that you’re very cute when you’re flustered.”

“See, you’re doing it again.”

“I can’t help it!” he claims, giggling once more. “Um, sorry? I guess that I’ve always been pretty straight forward when it comes to things like this. But, I suppose I can try to be a bit more… lowkey?”

Luke seems to weigh his options for a moment, but eventually he shakes his head again. “No, it’s okay. You don’t have to be anything. I, um, I like you the way that you are right now.”

And if that isn’t the sweetest thing that anyone has ever said to Ashton, then he doesn’t know what is. It’s totally involuntarily when he begins to blush, which is quite ridiculous because he’s had much naughtier things said to him before. But, somehow Luke’s words mean a lot more to him, probably because they’re genuine and contain no ulterior motive behind them. Luke literally likes him the way that he is right now, in this moment, even though most days Ashton can’t find a single reason to like himself. Luke still likes him, though, and knowing that feels amazing.

However, Ashton is too proud to admit this, so he turns it into a joke instead.

“Wow. Now you’re making _me_ flustered, Luke Hemmings.”

“Shut up,” Luke groans, but he ends up laughing, anyway.

They finally arrive at Luke’s place a few minutes later. Normally it wouldn’t have taken long at all to get there, but because they’d been walking instead of Luke riding his skateboard and Ashton his bike, it took much longer than necessary. Obviously, neither of them will complain about the extra time that they were able to spend together. Especially now that things really do seem to have gone back to normal between them—although, maybe ‘normal’ isn’t the right word for it, either. Instead, it would be more accurate to say that things between them are _peaceful_.

Peaceful, comfortable, perfect, and certainly a step up from how things were just a few hours before.

It’s progress, and a progress is good.

Once they’re standing before the front door, Ashton quickly searches his mind for a way to say goodbye without sounding desperate or clingy. But when he finally thinks that he’s got it, he loses it just a quickly, because Luke does something that takes him completely by surprise.

Luke steps forward and hugs him.

It’s a real hug, too. His arms are wrapped around Ashton’s neck and their chests are pressed together. Ashton is suddenly aware of every inch on his body that is touching Luke’s, and it’s such a wonderful feeling. As soon as he gets over the initial shock from the sudden physical contact, he wastes no time in wrapping his arms around the younger boy’s waist and pulling him just a bit closer to return the hug.

“Thank you,” Luke murmurs, and it’s barely audible even though he’s so close to Ashton’s ear. “For today. I had a lot of fun.”

He pulls away a moment later, and Ashton has to resist the overwhelming urge to reach out for his touch. Luke is smiling, though. A warm smile that tickles Ashton from the inside out, and he smiles back automatically.

“I had tons of fun, too,” Ashton replies. He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck just to give his hand something to do, otherwise he probably will reach out for Luke again. “And, I guess that I should be thanking you, too. Y’know, for not hating me at all, even after last night…”

“What?” Luke looks legitimately confused at that particular statement. “Ash, I could never hate you. Never. Last night was just… shitty. I was having a shitty night. I’m sorry that I yelled at you and I’m sorry that you had to see me like that.”

“Hey, no worries. I understand.” This time Ashton doesn’t stop himself from reaching out and placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “But, like I said before, I’m here for you. Alright? Even if you just wanna get drunk and talk shit about superheroes, I’m down for that. So, don’t ever feel like you’re alone, ‘cause you’re not. I promise you that.”

For the second time, Luke gives him a smile that’s filled with warmth and something else that makes Ashton’s heart beat a little quicker, and in the back of his mind he hopes that he’ll be able to keep seeing that smile as often as possible. He thinks that as long as Luke is smiling just like this, then everything will be alright.

They’ll be alright.

Just before disappearing inside of the house, Luke asks: “Do you think that I can take you up on that offer from earlier? About the pictures from Comic Con? I really do want to see them.”

Ashton is nodding before he even finishes that sentence. “Yeah, of course! You should, like, come over tomorrow. I don’t have to go to work that day, so I’ll be home right after school is out. Would you be okay with that? Coming over, I mean.”

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” Luke agrees. “I can’t wait.” Smiling again—though mainly to himself—Luke waves from the doorway. “Goodnight, Ashton.”

It’s not until Ashton is on his bike again and riding away from Luke’s house when he realizes that he can’t wait to see Luke again, either. Maybe it’s pathetic, maybe it isn’t. Ashton doesn’t care, he just knows that he’s already counting down the hours until then.

***

They grow closer to each other, over the weeks that follow. Now that Ashton has learned not to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong, Luke gradually begins opening up to him at his own pace. As it turns out, Luke’s big secret gives way to much smaller secrets that used to be unexplainable, but now that Ashton knows the truth, those little details make much more sense.

For instance, Luke never told his parents or anyone else about his assault because he didn’t want to put them through anything like that. He admits that for the longest time, he thought that what had happened to him was consensual, all because he _did_ kiss the girl back at first, and thought that she was pretty. It wasn’t until the nightmares started that Luke realized what had happened to him was anything but consensual. He didn’t know how to deal with it, though. He didn’t know what to do or how he was supposed to feel, he just knew that he felt gross and that he desperately needed an escape.

That’s where the comic books come in. Luke has always loved comic books, but now they really do serve as a way for him to temporarily escape reality. When he reads comic books, he feels safe. He feels like a superhero who can overcome anything, and no one can ever hurt him again. Unfortunately, transporting himself into the Marvel universe doesn’t always keep away the dark thoughts and bad feelings.

That’s where the alcohol comes in. That’s when Luke will get himself as drunk as possible, as soon as his parents leave the house for more than just a few hours. It’s easy enough to do it, he explains to Ashton one day, because his dad never keeps track of his beers and simply assumes that he drank them himself. Sometimes Luke thinks that his mother knows about him sneaking beers, but she doesn’t inquire about it, so he keeps doing it.

Ashton also learns that the traumatic experience that Luke faced is the reason that he doesn’t sing or play guitar anymore. He tells Ashton that he lost the passion for it, that it was taken from him in the dark room at that party. The ability to love something and put all of his effort into it has been taken from him, leaving him with nothing but comic books filled with stories that he’s read a thousand times. Luke says that sometimes he’ll play the guitar alone in his room, but when he tries to sing, the words get caught in his throat. He hates the sound of his voice now, hates that he couldn’t use it to call out for Jack when he needed him most, even though his brother wouldn’t have possibly been able to hear him over the sound of music and conversations.

Nowadays, Luke finds comfort in the little things. He keeps his Lego toys, stuffed animals, and drinks apple juice to feel like a kid again. He thinks that as long as he has those things, then it’ll be easier to pretend that his innocence was never taken away from him. He’ll be able to wipe that memory from his childhood and eventually move on from it. At least, that’s what he’s hoping.

Ashton remembers learning in school that everyone deals with trauma in different ways, and so he won’t dare try and invalidate Luke’s coping mechanism. Instead, he offers as much help as he can possibly give, because even though he can’t change the past or magically fix everything, he _can_ be there for Luke. And, that’s exactly what he plans to do. Just as promised.

One night, Ashton is dreaming of werewolves when Luke decides that he needs him.

The buzzing of his phone rouses him from his strange dream, and Ashton blinks several times in the darkness before he understands that his phone is ringing. He rolls over and groans in annoyance, because nothing is more bothersome than being wanted in the middle of the night. But his phone doesn’t stop ringing, of course it doesn’t, so Ashton blindly reaches for it on his nightstand and groans again into the phone when he answers it.

“I _really_ hope that this is the prime minister, because I was in the middle of—”

Ashton pauses upon hearing a small whimper from the person on the other end of the line, and when he pulls the phone away from his face to actually glance at the name, only then does he recognize who it is. And, although he tries not to, he instantly starts to panic.

“Luke? Are you okay?” he asks frantically. Just in case he needs to dash out of bed, Ashton shifts so that he’s sitting with his back against the headboard. He doesn’t even know the situation yet, but his heart is pounding in his ears and he suddenly feels a bit lightheaded. “Lukey? Babe, talk to me. I need to know if you’re alright or not.”

It feels like it takes forever before Luke finally responds to him.

“I… s-sorry,” Luke mutters brokenly. He pauses, sniffling a couple of times, then takes a deep, audible breath to try and calm down. “I’m sorry, Ash, I just… I had… and it was… I just don’t—I don’t know what to do…”

Despite the vagueness of that explanation combined with Luke’s voice cracking in the middle of it, Ashton is still able to understand the gist of it. Frowning now and overcome with sympathy for the younger boy, Ashton brushes the hair out of his eyes and clears his throat. When he speaks, his voice is still a little gravely from sleep, but to Luke’s ears, it sounds as sweet as honey.

“Oh, Lukey,” he starts with a sad sigh. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“Mhm…” Luke replies a moment later, sniffling again.

It must’ve been a really bad nightmare this time, if it managed to bring him to tears. Ashton wishes that he could be there now, holding Luke in his arms and whispering sweet nothings into his ear until he felt better, until the horrible memories faded away and he could fall asleep again. He wishes that he could do all of that and more, but he can’t, and it hurts.

The least that Ashton can do is try to reassure him. In that same soft tone, he says, “Everything will be okay, Luke. You’re alright now, it’s just a dream. Just… take a deep breath for me, okay? Can you do that?”

Over the phone, Luke does as he’s instructed to, inhaling a deep breath and slowly exhaling it into the speaker. He doesn’t sound like he’s crying anymore, but he does sniffle occasionally. Still, it sounds like he’s calming down, and that’s what’s most important. Ashton wouldn’t know what to do if Luke began to have some sort of panic attack.

After taking a few deep breaths, Luke says, “I’m sorry. I don’t… I don’t usually get like this, and I haven’t, like—I haven’t had a nightmare like this in a really long time, so I don’t know why it happened now and I tried to deal with it on my own but I just _can’t_ and I—”

“Lukey.” Ashton speaks over him, cutting him off. “Don’t worry about it, okay? You don’t have to apologize, I _want_ to help you. Now, just take another deep breath for me, alright? Everything will be fine, I promise.”

Once again, Luke does as he’s told. He takes a few more deep breaths and doesn’t start to go on a tangent when he’s finished, which is always a good sign. Instead, he listens to everything that Ashton says to him, only focusing on the older boy’s gentle voice and nothing more.

“Do you feel better now?” Ashton asks, then patiently waits for Luke to confirm this.

Luke lets out a loud yawn before answering. “Yeah, yeah I do. Thank you.”

“No problem, sleepyhead,” Ashton says, giggling. Just to lighten the mood, he adds teasingly, “Would you like me to sing you a lullaby?”

And even though he obviously can’t see it, Ashton can tell that Luke has just rolled his eyes.

“No, but thanks for the offer,” he replies, voice laced with sarcasm. However, when he speaks up again, he sounds much more genuine. “Um… would you mind telling me a story, though? I like it when you tell me stories.”

Because it’s probably the first time that anyone has ever said that to him, Ashton smiles. He prides himself in being a _fantastic_ storyteller, and never passes up the opportunity to tell one. So, of course he’ll tell Luke a story. Besides, his friend needs him and that’s what he’s here for.

“Sure. What kind of story would you like to hear, Lukey boy?”

Luke hums for a moment, thinking to himself. When he finally decides on one, he gasps and says, “Tell me about your comic. You know, the one that you want to write someday? Also known as the one that you promised to show me, but I can be patient. I wanna know the storyline, though. Will you tell it?”

Ashton honest-to-god starts to sweat. To be completely honest, he may have been hoping that Luke would forget about that little promise, since he’s positive that his comics are garbage. In fact, most of them don’t even have a storyline. They’re just a bunch of silly doodles that he creates when he’s bored, and then abandons when he gets bored again.

However, there is one particular comic that he would like to see published someday. Yeah, it’ll probably never happen, but it’s the only one that he’d actually want to work on developing in the future. Perhaps he’ll talk about that one, since Luke asked so nicely.

“Okay, well… I don’t exactly have a plot for it yet, but I can tell you about some of the characters? Like, their backstories?” Ashton suggests.

The sound of movement can be heard from the other side, as Luke probably makes himself more comfortable.

“Yes, please,” he finally answers. “Tell me all about them.”

Ashton giggles softly. “As you wish.”

Without further ado, Ashton begins telling Luke all about the fictional characters that he has created so far. He talks of aliens, robots, bounty hunters, and epic space battles just to make everything sound cooler. Ashton had almost forgotten just how much he liked this particular idea of his, so he makes a mental note to himself to start drawing more comics and plan out the actual storyline.

The best part is that Luke listens to him with diligence, only speaking up every now and then to ask a curious question or to comment on what he likes about a certain character. The fact that he’s actually intrigued by this incomplete, mediocre creation is quite pleasing to Ashton. But, at the same time, it’s no surprise at all. Luke has always shown great interest in anything that Ashton says, as if no matter what the circumstances are, he’ll be the one still listening. Even when everyone else has left Ashton behind and forgotten about him, Luke will still be there, a warm smile on his face and happiness in his eyes.

Since Luke is still awake by the time that Ashton is done rambling about his ideas, they pick up their usual topic about superheroes and which type of super powers they would love to have. This particular topic is always entertaining, because Luke comes up with the weirdest things. Like, for instance, the ability to shoot spaghetti from his fingertips. That would be extremely gross, though, so Ashton tells him to come up with another one.

“What do you reckon my super powers would be? And, this time you can’t say anything that has to do with spaghetti.”

“Damn,” Luke curses, as if that’s exactly what he had planned to bring up again. He spends a moment just humming in thought. “Maybe super strength? Or, would that be way too cliché? Probably. Um, then how about… something to do with empathy.”

Slightly confused, Ashton tilts his head on the pillow. “Empathy?”

“Yeah, because you have a lot of empathy for others,” Luke explains. “And, your second power would be… the ability to make people happy.”

Ashton snorts. “Seriously, Luke? I mean, I guess that that would be a pretty damn good power, but…” He trails off then, suddenly catching onto the implications behind those words. He asks, almost timidly: “Do I make you happy or something?”

Luke’s answer is instant. “You do.”

Right. If anyone asks, Ashton will certainly never admit that he blushes. He’ll never admit that he buries his face in the pillow, either, because he can’t stop smiling at that. And, never ever will he admit to the butterflies that flutter wildly in his tummy, because this is ridiculous. All of this is ridiculous and embarrassing, and it feels _good_.

“Aww,” Ashton coos, still grinning like an idiot. “Well, you make me really happy, too… just so you know.”

“I’m glad,” Luke mutters, and it’s obvious that he’s grinning right now, too. “I’ve come up with a third power for you.”

“Yeah? Was is it?”

“The ability to fall on your ass a lot while skateboarding.”

Ashton’s betrayed gasp is enough to make Luke burst into giggles.

“Hey!” he shouts, offended, but Luke laughing hysterically starts to make Ashton laugh, too, so he doesn’t try to stop himself.

Neither of them pay attention to how much time passes by while they’re talking on the phone, but eventually the conversation comes to an end when it’s obvious that they’re both dozing off. As a matter of fact, Luke has probably already fallen asleep again, since he hasn’t said anything at all in the past few minutes that Ashton has been talking about tarantulas. But, even though Ashton suddenly feels a bit lonely, he’s happy that he was able to help Luke in his time of need. He’s happy that Luke is happy, and what more can he ask for?

“Lukey?” Ashton calls out softly, just to see if the other boy really has fallen asleep. When he doesn’t get a response after the first five seconds, he safely assumes that Luke has drifted off to dreamland once more—and, hopefully, he won’t be bothered by any nightmares again.

It happens in this moment, when Ashton is simply listening to the quiet sound of Luke breathing. He suddenly feels a little brave, or maybe just stupid, but in either case, he feels a strong urge to say certain things because Luke is asleep now. Sure, he’ll be able to hear Ashton, but he won’t know a single thing by the time that he finally wakes up. Knowing this gives Ashton just the right amount of courage that he needs to speak.

“So, this is probably really lame and it’s exactly what happens in every stupid teen movie _ever_ , but…” Ashton exhales a long, tired sigh. “But, I don’t know, I’m just… really grateful for what we have together? I mean, I feel like I’ve finally found someone who likes just about everything that I like, but when we talk about stuff, it’s not… boring? ‘Cause even though we have so much in common, we still have different opinions and we can share those opinions with each other, and it’s nice.

“I’m also happy that you’re comfortable enough to open up to me now, and to share things with me that you don’t tell anyone else. I’m happy that I can do the same with you, as well. Like, I honestly want to punch myself for not noticing you sooner and befriending you. Fuck, and I can’t believe that at first I only wanted certain things from you, and now… well, now I can’t imagine going a single day without talking to you, and I’m so damn happy that you wanna talk to me, too.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re something really special, Luke. You’re so damn special to me and I just wanna, like, I don’t know… I want to keep you happy, and protect you from all of the terrible shit in the world because you’re just… you’re just so good and _pure_. And, I guess if there’s anything that I’m proud of, then it’s somehow getting you to like a nobody such as myself. But, um… I suppose that that’s a good thing, because I kind of like you back?

“Oh, god, what am I saying. You’re literally asleep and I sound like an idiot. Fuck it, though. I really like you and someday I’m going to tell you that when you’re actually awake, because you deserve to hear it for real. But, until then… goodnight, Lukey boy. Sweet dreams.”

***

It’s just another uneventful day at Clifford’s Comic Books, yet Ashton can’t stop smiling.

There are approximately five minutes left of his shift, and he’s been listening to the silliest debate in the history of debates going down between Michael and Luke. Most of it doesn’t even make sense and he’s positive that even they know that, but since there’s nothing else to do and it’s all in good fun, the two younger boys keep going back and forth with their silly arguments. Even Ashley finds it amusing and chips in with her two cents, every now and then.

“Okay, but consider this,” Michael says. In what’s got to be the most dramatic way possible, he raises his hands into the air, whispers, “ _Spirit Bomb_.”

Luke just stares at him with one brow raised. “What does that even mean? Whatever. I highly doubt that it’d be enough to defeat Batman, so.”

Instead of replying to that, Michael turns to Ashton with the most disgusted look on his face. “Why is he so ignorant?!”

“He doesn’t watch _Dragon Ball Z_ , Mike.” Ashton answers without looking up, as he’s currently too busy counting the money in the register. Once he’s finished with that task, he smiles triumphantly because this means that he’s officially done for the day. He’s free to go home and he can’t wait to do so.

“That’s no excuse,” Michael says. He turns back to Luke, shaking his head sadly. “You have no excuse, and you can’t just fuckin’ dismiss it when you don’t even know what it means! No mere mortal would be able to withstand a Spirit Bomb, okay, especially not one made by Goku. It’s just not possible.”

Luke only shrugs at the other boy’s argument, as if the particular topic doesn’t really interest him anymore, or he just finds that statement incredibly hard to believe. He still indulges in Michael, though.

“You said it yourself. Goku isn’t even a superhero, he’s just a dude who fights other dudes because those dudes want to kill him. I don’t understand how any of that makes him better than _actual_ heroes.”

Michael snorts, clearly displeased with those words. “You desperately need to be educated.” He turns to Ashton again. “Ash! You used to watch the show, right? You were a real fan?”

Ashton nods as he makes his way to the backroom to gather his things. “Yeah. When I was, like, ten years old.”

“Well, you should be able to remember enough of it to educate your boyfriend.”

And because he hadn’t expected that—no one did, honestly—Ashton pauses. Everyone pauses. All except Ashley, who snorts behind her hand because apparently she’s still listening to the conversation, and Michael, who is smirking at the moment because he’s a little shit.

Therefore, Ashton and Luke are the only ones who actually freeze on the spot. Luke resorts to staring down at his feet, an obvious blush on his cheeks and embarrassment written all over his face. Ashton blushes, too, but because he’s much more used to Michael’s teasing, he frowns and wastes no time in uttering a comeback.

“Be quiet and go read your anime porn, Michael.”

This time Ashley laughs even louder, while Michael gasps, offended.

“It’s called Hentai and it’s an art form!” he argues instead of denying it. “Anyway, this isn’t about that, so leave my anime porn out of this.”

Ashton rolls his eyes but smiles, feeling victorious. “If you say so.”

Just before disappearing into the backroom to retrieve his bag, Ashton spares a brief glance in Luke’s direction and finds the other boy already looking at him, a faint smile on his face. He’s still blushing, though, and Ashton imagines walking over to him to make that blush deepen even more. If he had the guts to do it, he’d raise a hand to Luke’s cheek and gently caress it with his thumb. He’d stare into those big, soft, baby blue eyes before closing his own and lessening the distance between them, as he leans forward to capture those pretty pink lips. He’d do all of that and more, if Luke would let him.

Instead, Ashton simply gives Luke a wink before going into the backroom at last. It’s enough for now, he thinks. It’s enough because Luke bites his bottom lip to keep his smile from widening, even if he fails to do so.

Upon resurfacing with all of his belongings, Ashton says, “Ready to go, Luke?”

The younger boy glances up from the _Dragon Ball Z_ manga that Michael is now forcing him to read, and nods excitedly. When he closes the little book and tries to give it back, Michael shakes his head and places it back into Luke’s hands.

“Keep it for now,” he says. “I want you to be educated before coming in here again, alright? Then we’ll see if you still hold those shitty opinions of yours. I bet that you won’t.”

Luke properly laughs at that, but he still promises to read the manga before shoving it into his own backpack. The smile doesn’t leave his face as he approaches Ashton and stands by his side, still looking oh-so excited to be going home with Ashton. He certainly isn’t the only one who’s excited, though.

“See ya, Ashley,” Ashton calls out, waving to his friend on the other side of the counter as they head towards the exit.

“Have fun!” she calls back to them. The meaning behind the smirk on her face isn’t hard to figure out, because of course she’s thinking that they’ll get up to much more than just studying. And even though Ashton wishes it were true, it really isn’t, and so he simply rolls his eyes and ignores the implications.

It would be nice if Ashton had a car of his own, but he doesn’t yet, so Luke climbs onto the back of his bike and they head towards home. Ashton quickly decides that this form of transportation isn’t so bad after all, because it means that Luke has to grip his shoulders and lean against his back in order not to fall. And if Ashton swerves a few times on purpose, it’s worth it to hear Luke’s laugh and his threats of ditching Ashton so that he’ll have to study alone. Of course he doesn’t believe that Luke would go through with those threats, but Ashton stops swerving either way because sometimes he knows how to be nice. Especially when it comes to cute boys with pretty eyes and smiles that make his heart race.

They arrive at the Irwin household without any mishaps, despite Ashton’s silliness. After putting his bike away and entering the home with Luke following behind, he’s pleasantly surprised by the wonderful aroma of something cooking in the kitchen. Ashton can already tell that it’s pasta, which is his absolute favorite.

Upon entering the kitchen, he finds the rest of his family busy at work. His mother, Anne, seems to be in the middle of chopping vegetables that’ll probably be their side dish, while Lauren concentrates on stirring the pot of spaghetti sauce. In contrast, little Harry looks like he’s having trouble as he sets the table, unable to decide which side the silverware is supposed to be on. After switching them around twice and still being unsure, the boy shrugs, deciding to put some on the left side and the rest on the right.

“Something smells nice,” Ashton says from the doorway.

Noticing another presence for the first time, all of them turn to greet both him and Luke, and Anne smiles politely at their guest.

“Welcome home, boys! Nice of you to join us. I hope that you like spaghetti?” she says, the latter question directed at Luke.

Luke nods shyly. “Yeah. Um, I mean, yes. Spaghetti is my favorite, too. I like it a lot.”

Although it isn’t the first nor the second time that Luke has met Ashton’s family, he’s still incredibly awkward around them and it’s undeniably _cute_. But, then again, everything about Luke is cute, so that’s no surprise. Still, Ashton bumps his shoulder to get him to relax, before walking across the kitchen to stand next to Anne. He kisses his mother’s cheek as usual, and hums as he takes in the sight of the freshly cut veggies.

“Mum, would you mind if Luke and I have a snack before then? I’m starving.”

Without looking away from the food that she’s gathering, Anne nods. “Go ahead, just don’t eat anything too heavy.”

Ashton promises that he won’t and prances over to the refrigerator, where he gathers a couple of pieces of fruit; a banana for himself and an apple for Luke. As he passes Lauren on the way out of the kitchen, he stops by the stove and inhales the yummy smell of pasta sauce. However, when he attempts to sneak a little taste, his sister takes the spoon away from him and blocks him from his goal.

“It’s not finished!” she says, chastising him. Lauren places the spoon back in its rightful place and returns to stirring the contents of the pot.

Ashton pokes out his bottom lip in a pout, trying to get his way. “Aw, c’mon. Don’t you love me?” In response to that, Lauren sticks out her tongue before returning to the task at hand and completely ignoring his presence, making him frown. “Fine, but I’ll remember this!”

Of course he won’t hold it against her, though, since she’s currently at that age where everything is a battle, no matter what it is. Thus, Ashton is unfazed when he turns around to walk back over to Luke, who is kindly aiding Harry in fixing the utensil placement. The smaller boy looks utterly confused, for some reason.

“Most people prefer the utensils on the right side,” Luke explains to the boy as he makes the adjustments.

“Oh,” Harry says in return. He tilts his head to the side, frowning. “Why?”

“Well, I think because most people are right-handed.”

“Oh,” he repeats, but it doesn’t sound like he understands at all. Again, he asks, “Why?”

“Um, because…” Luke trails off, then, as he legitimately tries to assess why most people are right-handed. At this rate, he’s just going to give himself a headache, so Ashton giggles and comes to his rescue.

“Listen, Harry.” Ashton pauses to toss the apple to Luke, who just barely catches it in surprise. He grins at his baby brother, saying, “Luke is a genius boy, yes, but he doesn’t have the answers to _all_ of your questions. Okay, Iron Man?”

Harry actually rolls his eyes, crosses his arms over his chest, and replies in a sassy tone: “Iron Man isn’t my favorite anymore. I like Thor now.”

Ashton raises his hands in defense. “Well, _excuse me_ , Mister Thor.”

Apparently, both of his siblings are going through similar phases of nonstop grumpiness, but whatever. He loves them regardless and they love him just as much, so after messing up Harry’s hair to tease him further, Ashton gestures for Luke to follow him and they head upstairs to his bedroom.

“Sorry about the mess,” he says when they enter the room.

Aside from the pile of clean clothes that Ashton has tacked into a pile on one side of his dresser, it seems that he also forgot to make his bed despite knowing that Luke would be visiting today. But, to be fair, messy beds are never on his mind when he’s getting ready to leave for school. His only thoughts every morning are in this order: food, more sleep, how much he hates his first class of the day, and sleep again.

“Hey, is this where you keep the comics that you draw?”

Ashton spins around just as Luke picks up the sketchbook from his desk and starts to open it. Then, it’s as if the following events occur in slow motion: Ashton feels his heart drop into his stomach, and his feet automatically take the few steps closer to the other boy. As soon as he’s in reach, he snatches the sketchbook from Luke’s hands and clutches it to his chest, protecting the object as if it held his deepest, darkest secrets.

In a way, it sort of does. And because his reaction was so damn dramatic, Luke is left staring at him with wide eyes that look a little guilty.

“I’m sorry!” Luke blurts out, and now he’s nervously chewing on his lip as per usual. “Sorry, I really should have asked first… I didn’t get a chance to see anything, though. I swear.”

The sudden awkwardness around them is so thick that Ashton nearly chokes on it. He supposes that there’s still a chance he can pass this off as nothing, if he reacts fast enough. Thus, he shakes his head and lets out a nervous laugh.

“It’s fine! Really. I, um.” He pauses, clears his throat to buy more time to come up with a believable lie. “Actually, no. This isn’t where I draw my comics, you see, because it’s my anatomy sketchbook? Like, I doodle random parts of the human body that I need to practice on… y’know, such as hands, eyes, boobs, and there are even a few dicks in there just because they’re funny to draw.”

Technically, most of that is true. Ashton does use this particular sketchbook to draw body parts. However, hands and poorly drawn dicks aren’t the only things that he has in there. In fact, he is well aware that there just so happens to be a few sketches of Luke’s profile somewhere within the book, but only because Ashton had been bored at the time and Luke’s face is a really nice shape. It’s definitely _not_ because he’s some sort of creep, no, not at all. But, he’s afraid that Luke may think so, if he sees the pictures and recognizes the faces as his own.

Ashton could have sworn that he’d left that sketchbook in his backpack, but then he recalls taking it out to sketch Luke’s long eyelashes the night before—because, y’know, he was bored. He must’ve forgotten to put it back, so really, this embarrassing moment is completely his own fault.

Luckily, Luke believes the lie easily enough, despite still looking confused and a little guilty.

“Oh… well, um, would you be comfortable with showing me the comics, then?” he asks, or rather, _pleads_. “You don’t have to, of course! It’s just that I’ve been really wanting to see them, ever since you promised to show me a couple of months ago…”

Right. The promise that they’d made during that very first day, when Luke was teaching Ashton how to skateboard. It’s hardly been two months since then, yet it feels like a lifetime ago because so much has happened between then. Either way, Ashton is still positive that his silly comics aren’t anything to brag about, but because a small part of him yearns for Luke’s approval, he eventually nods.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he answers at last, albeit hesitantly.

After putting away the _wrong_ sketchbook, Ashton presents Luke with the correct one that actually does contain his comics. He holds his breath the second that the sketchbook touches the younger boy’s fingers, and he thinks that he’ll faint when Luke finally opens the book to read the first page. Although Ashton is afraid that his friend won’t like it, he’s anxiously waiting for feedback and every second that passes is pure _torture_.

Finally, Luke tears his eyes away from the comic and glances up at him.

“Did you really draw these?”

Ashton half-shrugs and nods once. “Mhm… I know they’re not, like, that good or anything. But, I never planned for them to be more than—”

“Ash,” Luke says, cutting him off entirely. He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? I mean, these are fucking _amazing_. Like, if I didn’t know that they were drawn by you, then I’d honestly think that they were the first drafts of something professional.”

It should be impossible, how fast Ashton’s cheeks turn a deep shade of red. But that’s exactly what happens in this moment, and he’s far too flattered to care. However, his own insecurities make an attempt to ruin this for him and he instantly passes it off as a joke.

“Don’t you think that you’re over exaggerating? Just a little bit?” he suggests with an uneasy laugh.

Luke doesn’t let his skill go unappreciated, though. “Me? Over exaggerating? No, you’re just not exaggerating it enough! I’m not even joking, Ashton, these are _really_ good.”

Ashton doesn’t even know if any of that makes sense, because it doesn’t sound like it. But, whether it actually does or not, the fact remains that he’s instantly filled with joy upon hearing that Luke likes his artwork. In fact, he feels so warm and happy inside that, for once, he allows himself to believe in the compliments. Ashton starts to believe that maybe Luke isn’t just being nice about it. Maybe he legitimately thinks that the comic is _good_.

“Well, if you really do like it as much as you say that you do…” Ashton trails off and shrugs again, trying to appear nonchalant despite the excitement building up within. “How about I draw another panel for you? I can show you how I go about doing it.”

The way that Luke smiles at him is enough to make Ashton feel like he can take on the world, right about now.

“Okay,” the blond boy eagerly agrees. “You can show me later.”

Wait… what?

Ashton blinks at him. “Later? Why not now?”

“Because we still have to study, duh!” Luke says, laughing. “You have a maths final coming up, yeah? That’s what I’m here for, to help you study so that you’ll have no problem acing the test.”

In an instant, all of Ashton’s excitement boils down to absolute _dread_. He groans upon remembering their ultimate goal for this evening, and like a child being denied his favorite toy, he dramatically drops his arms to his sides and begins to pout.

“ _Luke_ , the final isn’t until a couple of weeks from now! There’s plenty of time to study, but right now I’m in the mood to draw.”

Unfortunately for Ashton, Luke pretty much ignores all of that. He keeps the sketchbook with him as he removes his shoes and climbs onto Ashton’s bed to make himself more comfortable. Before giving his full attention to the homemade comic again, he notices that Ashton is still standing in the middle of the room. So, Luke points to the desk with an expectant look on his face.

“You should really start now, that way we’ll have plenty of time to practice the ones that you’re struggling with.” Then, just like that, he bows his head and goes back to reading the comic in his lap. “If you need help or get stuck, just ask me.”

Honestly? This just proves that evil can come in any shape or form, and that includes little blond boys with skinny legs and long eyelashes.

Ashton really does begin his homework, though, since he doesn’t seem to have a choice. And Luke helps him whenever necessary, and it’s rather kind of him to do, considering he must have his own homework to complete. When Ashton mentions this, Luke insists that all of it has been taken care of, and he even has the nerve to accuse Ashton of using it as an excuse to get out of doing his own homework, which is totally a false. Still, Ashton has to admit that Luke’s help is a blessing, because he’s so good at mathematics and he’s always patient with Ashton, who certainly isn’t good at the subject at all.

For the most part, Luke just stays on the bed, absorbed in Ashton’s comic and admiring the lovely sketches of each character. When he finds something particularly interesting, he gasps with delight, and Ashton finds himself smiling despite the evil math problem that he’s in the middle of working on. He can’t help it, though. Knowing that Luke loves his creation fuels him, makes him want to actually try working towards a career in art. Even with the discouraging words from teachers and relatives, Ashton is starting to feel like they’re wrong. If he tries hard enough, maybe he actually can draw comics for a living.

Who knows, he might even become the next Stan Lee.

Probably not. But, it’s still worth a try.

What _isn’t_ worth a try is the hellish problem that Ashton has been stuck on for the past ten minutes alone, and the only reason that he hasn’t asked for help yet is because he wanted to surprise Luke by doing it himself. Looks like that’s not going any time soon, so Ashton groans in frustration and lets his head fall to the desk.

“That’s it, I’m done. I have died and now my soul is being consumed by shitty equations. Tell my family that I loved them very much.”

From where he’s still sitting on the bed, Luke giggles at Ashton’s pain and suffering, because he is indeed evil.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” he says in a playful tone. “Do you need my help again?”

Ashton shakes his head but doesn’t lift it up from the desk. “I need more than just help, Luke. I need a savior.” He exhales a long, exasperated sigh, feeling utterly defeated. “Or, y’know, a break. I could really use a break right now.”

Luke hums to himself, considering it. “You’ve only been working for about forty minutes, though. Most people usually take breaks after at least an hour of nonstop work, I think.”

Ashton groans again. “Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, _Lucas_ , but I am not most people. I’m taking a break and you can’t stop me.”

Before Luke has a chance to respond to that, they’re interrupted by the sound of Lauren’s voice from downstairs, announcing that dinner is ready and reminding them to wash their hands as if they were children. It’s the perfect excuse to take a break, though. And Ashton is so ecstatic that he jumps up from his chair, just as his stomach begins to growl audibly. Perfect timing, too.

“I guess we’ll take a break for dinner,” Luke says. He shuts the sketchbook and leaves it on the bed as he stands up to stretch, an action that exposes the soft, pale skin of his lower tummy. Ashton doesn’t even try to resist the urge to reach out and touch it, and it pleases him much more than it should when Luke squeaks as he’s poked in the side.

Here’s what happens next: Luke tries to get revenge by poking Ashton back, except he’s just a little too slow and Ashton manages to dodge it. But the blond boy doesn’t give up, and he chases Ashton out of the room and into the hallway, at which point they’re both giggling like a couple of school children on the playground. Since there’s only one bathroom upstairs, Ashton tries to shut the door behind him as fast as he can, but Luke shoves his way into the tiny room because he’s still trying to get revenge.

He does, of course. While sharing the sink, Luke splashes Ashton with water and the only reason that Ashton doesn’t return the favor is because he doesn’t want to be the one to clean the bathroom. It’s Harry’s turn to do that this week, and he prefers that it stays that way. Besides, he can always find some other way to pay Luke back for the splashing, and if given enough time to think, then it’s definitely going to be good.

They’re able to descend the staircase like civilized adults—or, civilized teenagers, technically—and join the others at the dinner table. It’s unsurprising when Luke is suddenly just a little bit shy again, or maybe just overly polite, now that he’s in the presence of Ashton’s family. In contrast, Ashton’s mother and siblings behave as they always do, initiating lively conversation as they eat and taking turns talking about their day. As usual, Harry asks Luke a billion and one questions, which Luke tries his best to answer. Lauren asks him questions, too, but not nearly as many, since she’s a preteen and knows how to keep it cool, for the most part.

The best thing about Luke having dinner with them is that it becomes even more obvious that Anne really likes Luke, and Luke likes Anne just as much. He compliments her cooking, she thanks him for helping Ashton with his mathematic school work, aka the one area that he used to be positive was going to hold him back from graduating, and everything is so very… perfect. Anne approves of Luke and that’s something that matters a lot to Ashton, even though they aren’t dating at the moment. Luke is still someone very special to him and he’s so damn glad that his family thinks that Luke is special, too.

There’s a change of plans, after dinner. Instead of retreating back upstairs to finish the last few math problems, Ashton and Luke end joining the others in the living room to watch _The Avengers_. It was all Harry’s idea, and they all decide that it’s a very good one, especially since it’s their mother’s night off from work. The second reason that it’s a good idea is that _The Avengers_ is one of the greatest movies ever, obviously.

Therefore, the four of them squeeze onto the couch with a large bowl of popcorn, while Harry makes himself comfortable on the floor in front of them, his eyes glued to the television before the movie even starts. It feels incredibly domestic, and Ashton loves every second of it. Although, to be completely honest, he finds it difficult to concentrate on the movie after Luke rests his head on Ashton’s shoulder in the middle of it. Then, the only thing that Ashton is able to focus on is the warmth radiating off Luke’s body, how he smells like popcorn and whatever shampoo that he used last, the small sounds that he makes whenever something happens on the bright screen.

It’s the little details that Ashton focuses on most of all. Those are the only things that matter.

The trance is broken not long after the movie ends, when Luke receives a text from his dad that says he’ll be arriving soon to take Luke home. He had stayed much longer than originally planned, but that doesn’t stop Ashton from being overcome with sadness. However, he keeps that to himself as they return to his bedroom for Luke to gather his things.

There is something else that Ashton knows he shouldn’t keep to himself for much longer, though, and he’s been waiting to bring it up for _days_. Now, he suddenly has the courage to actually bring it up, so he forces himself to speak before that courage slips away for good.

Ashton clears his throat. “So, uh… the end of the year formal is coming up really soon, at my school.”

Luke, who is currently sitting on the edge of Ashton’s bed and struggling a bit to put his shoes back on, doesn’t look up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah…”

An awkward pause, because Ashton is sure that he’s the one who is supposed to say something next, but he didn’t exactly plan this whole thing out. As a matter of fact, the only reason that he’s even thinking of going to the dance is because of Ashley, who won’t stop bugging him about it.

Suddenly, Luke asks, “Do you plan on going, or…?”

“I… don’t know?” Ashton admits, and just because, he laughs a little nervously. “I, uh, haven’t asked anyone to go with me yet, and it wouldn’t be fun to go alone… I mean, technically I wouldn’t be alone, since Ashley is going with Lynn, but being a third wheel is even worse!”

Again, Ashton laughs even though nothing is funny, but he’s suddenly so nervous and doesn’t know what he’ll do if Luke declines his offer. Well, obviously he wouldn’t go, but it’s a lot more dramatic than that, okay.

After retying his shoes, Luke pushes himself up from the bed and slings his bag over his back. He’s still not really facing Ashton, and he must’ve caught on by now because he’s playing with the hem of his shirt and staring down at his feet like he always does. Ashton doesn’t know if that’s a good sign or not, but before he can figure it out, Luke speaks up again in a rather quiet tone.

“Is there… someone that you had in mind?”

This is it. This is the perfect chance to admit that, yes, there definitely _is_ someone that Ashton would like to take as his date to the formal. Yes, that person is someone he has grown to trust quite a lot over the past couple of months. Yes, that person makes his chest ache and his stomach feel funny and sometimes (a lot of times) Ashton catches himself staring at that person’s lips, because he just wants to kiss them oh-so badly. Yes, that person is standing right in front of him, and he’s so close yet so far away at the same time.

But Ashton can do this. It’s just a simple question. He can do this. He will.

“I guess,” he answers at last, and now he stands a little straighter, speaks a little louder. “Yeah. Yeah, there is someone.”

Finally, Luke ceases avoiding his gaze and properly looks up at him with wide eyes and something else that Ashton can’t quite comprehend, but it doesn’t really matter right now because he’s about to do it. He’s about to ask Luke the simplest yet most difficult question in the entire universe, and Luke is probably, maybe, _hopefully_ going to say yes. Ashton can feel it in his bones.

Sadly, life does not agree with this plan. Just as the words make their way to the tip of Ashton’s tongue, the sound of a beeping car horn comes from directly outside, and there’s only one person that that could be.

Luke says it first. “My dad.”

And that’s all that he says, still staring at Ashton with his mouth open. But now his eyes look a little sad, or perhaps disappointed, because he has been waiting to hear the question for almost as long as Ashton has been waiting to say it. The mood has been ruined, though. The timing just isn’t right, and Luke’s dad honks the car horn again since his son is still nowhere to be seen.

This time, Ashton speaks. “Right. Um. I’ll walk you out, then?”

Luke gives him the faintest of smiles, and he nods. Together, they leave the small bedroom and make their way down the stairs in complete silence, now that there isn’t anything else for them to say.

At least, not right now.

***

“What the hell do you mean you haven’t asked him yet?!”

Enraged, Ashley bonks him on the head with a comic book, and Ashton has to wonder why she always seems to have one on hand, just in case she needs to hit him with it. As annoying as it is, it’s much better than him banging his head on the cash register as punishment for being foolish. Because, well, he certainly _is_ foolish, but not without reason.

“I _tried_ to,” Ashton argues, and this time he’s able to predict the next attack, so he snatches the book from her and sighs. “I was just about to ask him the other night, but then his dad arrived before I got the chance! And, like, how lame would it have been to just… blurt it out, right before he left? So, I didn’t.”

Ashley rolls her eyes in response to that. “At least it’s better than not asking at all! I hope you realize that soon enough, it’ll be too late for him to get one of those fancy suits. You gotta stop messing around, Ash, and just ask him to the formal.”

The worst part is that all of what she says is true, even though Ashton doesn’t want to hear it. He knows that if he doesn’t ask Luke sometime this week, then he’ll be dateless to the formal and won’t be able to attend. Technically, he still could go, but having to watch Ashley snog Lynn the entire time doesn’t sound all that appealing. However, if he eventually does ask Luke to be his date, then he wants to do it properly. He wants to make it special because Luke is a very special boy who deserves the best.

“I will ask him,” Ashton announces with confidence. “I’ll ask Luke to go with me, but… I wanna do it in a really special way, I guess? I know that that’s corny and no one really does things like that anymore, but I wanna do it. He means a lot to me, so I’ll do it.”

Upon noticing the way that Ashley is looking at him with the most endeared smile on her face, Ashton instantly starts to blush.

“I know what it is that you’re thinking, and you better not say it,” he warns.

Ashley snorts and reaches out to ruffle his hair, not caring when he whines and pushes her hand away. “Whatever you say, Juliet. I’m gonna help you out, though, ‘cause that’s what best friends are for. So, did you have anything particular in mind?”

Because he honestly has no clue, Ashton shakes his head with a frown. He’s never done this type of thing before, and the only romantic gesture that he _can_ remember doing is buying a bouquet of roses for Jasmine, back when he really wanted to ask her out on a date. With Dylan, they went straight into making out and grinding on each other at that party, so no romance there.

Basically, Ashton has no idea what he’ll do.

Luckily, Ashley has always been the better one at coming up with fun schemes. At the moment, she has a particular look on her face that always means that she’s brainstorming; her brows are furrowed, her lips are pursed, and nothing is able to break her concentration. Once she comes up with an idea, she gasps excitedly.

“How about a cliché ’80s method, yeah? What if you were to show up at his house one night and stand beneath his window with a boom box over your head, playing his favorite song and singing along to the lyrics? Then, when he opens the window to see what the hell is going on, you can ask him to be your date!”

Hearing that wacky plan, Ashton almost starts to laugh until he sees that she is being totally serious. Then, he sighs again, rolling his eyes because there’s no possible way that he’ll go with such an idea.

“Thanks, but I’d rather not humiliate myself because of a boy for the second time in my life.”

Ashley snorts, shaking her head. “Don’t pretend that you totally wouldn’t do it for Luke. But whatever, let’s see you try and come up with a better idea than mine.”

“I have one!” Michael shouts, appearing out of nowhere. Ashton hates when he does that. “He loves Batman, right? So you should dress up as Batman, show up at his house, and ask him out! Trust me, it’s bound to work.”

Ashton gawks at him. “That’s… that’s even worse than the ’80s idea!”

Michael stands there nodding and stroking his chin as he thinks. “Hmm… I guess you’re right. You should dress up as Spider-Man instead, then find a way to hang from his roof. When he opens the window, you guys can do the Spider-Man kiss! What do you think of that? I know, I’m a genius.”

“No,” Ashley replies before Ashton gets a chance to. “No way am I letting you trick Ashton into breaking his neck. Now, it would be a much better _and_ safer idea if he did something cute, like… ordering one of those really huge cookies and spelling out the question with the icing, then giving it to Luke as a gift.”

“That’s boring and lame,” Michael argues. “If he doesn’t go big, he might as well go home! Here’s my next idea: rent one of those planes and…”

Ashton promptly stops listening to the idiotic suggestions, despite the fact that his friends keep coming up with them. Brainstorming on his own now, he tries to come up with a plan that isn’t lame, is on the cuter side of things, _and_ is non-life threatening. It would be even better if it includes something that Luke is interested in, something that will definitely make him smile.

After another minute of simply thinking nonstop, Ashton feels like he’s finally found the perfect idea.

“Guys, I’ve got it!” he announces. Michael and Ashley instantly stop arguing about their ideas to hear his. Smiling, Ashton says, “And I’m gonna need both of you to help me with setting it up.”

“Alright, I’m in,” Ashley says, clapping her hands together once. “What do we have to do?”

***

“How many more of these things do you _have_? I’ve burnt my fingers, like, twice now,” Michael whines, and he’s probably just going to keep whining so Ashton has learned to ignore him, for the most part.

“Hey, you volunteered to help.” Ashton reminds him. He kneels down to light the next candle, too focused on getting through all of them to hear Michael’s reply. It doesn’t matter, though, because they’re almost finished. And once they’re finished lighting all of the candles, all that he has to do is text Luke and get him to come there. It should be easy enough, but Ashton is as nervous as can be.

Although Ashton’s plan isn’t life threatening, it certainly is a little risky. The skate park closes every evening in order to prevent certain shady things from going down on the premises, which means that they’re technically not allowed to be here. However, they’re not too worried about getting caught, since it’s not too uncommon for skaters to sneak in some nights because they can’t get enough of their hobby. Obviously, skateboarding is not the reason that Ashton and his friends are at the park.

Placing down all of the candles hadn’t taken too much time, but lighting them is an entirely different story. One thing that’s for certain is that they’re lucky it isn’t a particularly windy night, otherwise they’d have to continuously relight the candles once they’ve been blown out. For once, the universe is on Ashton’s side and they don’t have to do anything of that, but he still lets Ashley know to look out for any that may have dwindled.

By the time that they’ve finished, Ashton’s fingers hurt from constantly using the lighter in his hand, but he knows that this is going to be worth the subtle pain. In fact, he’ll forget all about it, once he sees the look on Luke’s face.

Standing at the edge of the bowl with Michael, Ashley smiles down at him and gives him a thumbs up.

“Looks like everything is finished! The only thing missing now is our Romeo. Have you sent him a text yet?”

“I’m about to,” Ashton calls up to her, but it’s an obvious lie. Well, mostly a lie. Of course he’s going to text Luke and ask him to come to the skate park, but for the past minute or two, he’s just been staring at his phone and failing to come up with a way to say it. He’s way too nervous and everything that he comes up with sounds totally lame.

Michael lets out an impatient sigh. “C’mon, Irwin. Stop being chicken and text your boyfriend, I wanna see his reaction to all of my hard work.” Ashley elbows him in the ribcage as soon as he finishes that sentence, so Michael corrects himself. “Fine, _our_ hard work. Whatever, just text him!”

“Stop yelling, I’m not good with pressure!” Ashton shouts back, and he ends up laughing because this is all so silly.

It’s just a stupid text message. He has texted Luke a million times before, so this one should be no different. It really is different for obvious reasons, but he’ll just pretend that it isn’t so that he can muster up the courage to finish the job. It’s time to do the damn thing, and he’s _mostly_ ready.

> **To: Lukey (9:50 PM)**
> 
> hey lukey lou who  
>  you busy?
> 
> **From: Lukey (9:50 PM)**
> 
> lukey lou who? that’s new  
>  i think i like it :-)  
>  and no im not busy. what’s up?
> 
> **To: Lukey (9:51 PM)**
> 
> good cuz im gonna keep calling you that  
>  also you should come to the skate park :)
> 
> **From: Lukey (9:51 PM)**
> 
> ????  
>  it’s almost 10? my parents will say no
> 
> **To: Lukey (9:51 PM)**
> 
> then don’t tell them anything duh  
>  just sneak out if you can
> 
> **From: Lukey (9:52 PM)**
> 
> why? is it important?
> 
> **To: Lukey (9:52 PM)**
> 
> yes luke it is very very very important…  
>  i just need to ask you something ok?  
>  something that i’ve been meaning to ask and it has to be in person  
>  so will you come? please? :(
> 
> **From: Lukey (9:53 PM)**
> 
> i’m putting on my shoes now
> 
> **To: Lukey (9:53 PM)**
> 
> yay! ❤

“Well? Is he coming or what?” Ashley asks, her hands impatiently resting on her hips.

Ashton nods as he shoves his phone back into his pocket, feeling even more nervous than before, if that’s possible. “He’s coming and he doesn’t live far away at all, so I need you two to like… go and hide somewhere.”

“Are you serious? You can’t be serious,” Michael scoffs. “I can’t see the look on his face if I’m _hiding_! I don’t want to miss the best part.”

Thankfully, Ashley has his back. “Let’s go, Mikey, you heard the man!” She tugs him by the arm and he reluctantly followers her away from the center of the park, leaving Ashton alone amongst the bright candles.

The waiting is the worst part. Waiting means that Ashton has time to come up with all sorts of reasons as to why this is a terrible idea, and Luke will reject him because of a variety of reasons.

For instance, Ashton is still just another loser, even if sometimes he forgets that because Luke makes him feel as bright and important as the sun. But, it’s possible that Luke doesn’t _like_ him anymore, even though he still blushes when Ashton smiles at him or touches him in the most subtle way. It’s also possible that Luke just doesn’t want to go with him to a stupid school dance, since he’s not even a student at Richmond and might see it as a waste of time. But, then again, he had looked fairly disappointed when Ashton didn’t get a chance to ask him, that night in his bedroom.

When considering the facts versus the insecure thoughts within Ashton’s mind, it all boils down to this: he’s worrying for nothing. Absolutely nothing. The truth is that Luke will probably be ecstatic that Ashton wants to take him to the formal, and he’ll probably— _hopefully_ —love what the three of them have put together at the skate park. Yes, hopefully he will. Ashton just seriously needs to stop stressing himself out.

After only a few minutes of waiting that felt more like a few years, Ashton gets another text.

> **From: Lukey (10:12 PM)**
> 
> i’m here…and there are candles everywhere  
>  did you do this?
> 
> **To: Lukey (10:12 PM)**
> 
> just follow them, dork :) x

While he’s unable to see it, Ashton can imagine it clearly. He imagines Luke staring at the many candles with his wide, baby blue eyes in the way that he always does. He imagines Luke cautiously following the trail of candles that begins at the entrance of the park and leads to the bowl in the middle, where Ashton is waiting for him with a nervous smile and a heart full of love.

Ashton doesn’t have to imagine the expression on Luke’s face when he arrives at the edge of the bowl. He sees it with his own two eyes, takes in the way that Luke just stares at him in the middle of all the candles, and sees the exact moment when the blond boy reads the words that the candles spell out:

‘GO 2 THE FORMAL WITH ME?’

Luke drops his skateboard and doesn’t flinch when it clatters to the ground at his feet. He lifts both of his hands to cover his mouth and continues staring in shock, at a complete loss for words. But, that’s okay because Ashton is the one who is supposed to be explaining himself, right about now. So, with that same nervous smile on his face, he finally speaks up.

“See? Told you that it was very important. Um… so do you like it? I admit that I had some help from Ashley and Mike, but.” He shrugs.

Slowly, hesitantly, Luke moves his hands away from his mouth so that he can be heard, though his voice is still shy and unsure when he actually does speak at last.

“You… you did all of this? For me?” he asks quietly, and already begins to chew on his bottom lip as he waits for a confirmation.

Ashton doesn’t keep him waiting. “Of course I did. Wanna know why?”

The younger boy nods.

“I did it because you’re special to me, Luke. You’re very special to me, in fact, and so I wanted to do something special for you in order to prove that.” Ashton explains as clearly as possible, but his voice still shakes from the nerves and he thinks that his heart might pop out of his chest.

“But, um, I also did it because I think that… I _know_ that you deserve nothing but the best, Lukey. You deserve the whole damn world and I’m just a typical geek, but I want to try to give it to you, because you’ve already given me so much. I mean, despite everything that’s happened, you always manage to keep a positive outlook on life? Even on the rough days you’ll share a laugh with me and we’re able to talk about silly shit, like which superhero would win in a fight against the other, and… doing things like that with you really had me thinking.

“I started to think that maybe everything would be okay, if I actually took the time to enjoy the present and all of the little things, instead of dwelling on the past or stressing over the future… I started to think that maybe my life wasn’t as shitty as I’d thought it was, especially now that I have you in it. I don’t remember when you became the first person that I think about when I wake up, and the last person that I think about before I fall asleep. But, you are. I really, _really_ like you, Luke… and so I’m doing this in the hope that you still like me, too.”

When Ashton finishes, it feels like the heaviest of weights has finally been lifted from his shoulders, even if the fluttery feeling within his stomach is there to stay for good. It’s the perfect feeling, though, because he’s been wanting to say these words for so long now. He wants Luke to know just how much of an effect he’s had on him, Ashton _needs_ Luke to know that his feelings for him are real and genuine.

And, looking at Luke now, he catches how the younger boy quickly wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand, and although it’s too dark to see the tears in his eyes, he definitely does sniffle a bit. Because Ashton hadn’t expected this type of reaction, of course he begins to panic. He begins to assume the worst, because that’s his job, he assumes things and this time he’s assuming that he’s said something wrong. He has uttered the shittiest thing without even realizing it, and now he’s made Luke cry.

“Shit, Luke, don’t cry—um, I’m sorry?” he blurts out, and then frantically glances around, struggling between climbing out of the bowl to comfort the boy or staying exactly where he is, just in case he makes things worse. A thought comes to him and he curses loudly, “Fuck, is this because you don’t like surprises? Oh my god, I’m such an idiot, I should have at least asked if—”

“No, no, no it’s not that!” Luke cuts him off all of a sudden, apparently having found his voice again. Once he has Ashton’s attention and the older boy is staring at him in confusion, Luke opens his mouth to try and explain the random tears, but many seconds pass by and he seems to have lost his words once more.

That’s when Luke gives up trying to come up with a verbal reply. Instead, he bends down and throws one leg over the edge of the bowl, and the other leg follows a second later. Then, the blond boy slides down the concrete wall on his bum, slow enough to avoid the lit candles at the bottom but fast enough to reach Ashton only seconds later. And when he finally _does_ reach Ashton, Luke throws both of his arms around the older boy’s neck and hugs him so fiercely that Ashton nearly loses his balance. He doesn’t, though. He catches Luke and holds him closely, arms squeezing his waist and palms pressed into his back, as if silently promising to never let him go.

“It’s… not that at all,” Luke murmurs, his breath hitting Ashton’s ear and sending shivers down his spine.

Out of nowhere, or perhaps just out of pure joy, Luke giggles excitedly and squeezes Ashton even more, obviously not caring that their bodies are already as close as physically possible.

It’s not nearly enough, though. They yearn to be closer.

Even so, Ashton is the one to pull away—just barely, because their bodies are still pressed together and their arms never leave their current position, but he pulls his head back just enough for them to make eye contact. Luke doesn’t seem to like that idea, since he lets out a petulant whine, but there’s still something that Ashton wants to be clarified before he allows himself to truly celebrate.

He clears his throat and asks: “So, like… you hugging me… is that a yes?”

For the second time, Luke actually giggles. His eyes are twinkling and he looks so beautiful like this, illuminated by the plethora of candles and the moonlight above them. He’s practically glowing right now, like some sort of star. Ashton loves it.

“Yes,” Luke whispers at last, nodding his head and still smiling beautifully. A little louder, he repeats it. “Yes, I’ll go to the formal with you, Ash. Yes, yes, yes, a million times _yes_.”

The thing is, it’s just too perfect: Luke’s smile and the way that he’s looking at Ashton now, Ashton’s own happy grin and the dimples in his cheeks that display just how thrilled he is to know that Luke will be his _date_. All of it is too perfect, it’s too much to handle, especially how Luke’s lips are mere inches away from Ashton’s in this moment. Because he’s only human, he glances down at them more than once as they beam at each other, still happy and hugging. Luke notices his wandering eyes, of course.

And, what would be a more appropriate thing to do right now, aside from kissing Luke? Nothing, that’s what. As a matter of fact, kissing those pretty pink lips is the only thing that Ashton wants in the entire world, to be completely honest.

Ashton doesn’t do it, though. Not this time. No, he’ll let Luke decide if kissing him is a privilege that he’ll allow. Ashton doesn’t want to go back to just assuming things, and he’s come to learn that consent is a very important aspect in any sort of relationship. You just can’t go without. So, when he sees the way that Luke glances down at his lips as well, and begins to bite his own suggestively, Ashton simply raises his brows and waits for the other boy to make the first move.

Luke licks his lips, and speaks in a tone that’s barely audible. “I want… I really, really want to kiss you now… can I? Would that be okay?”

Smiling, Ashton answers with ease. “Like I said before, I want to give you the world. You can have anything that you want, Lukey boy.”

Taking that as an obvious sign to just _do it_ , Luke stops hesitating altogether. He leans forward and presses his lips to Ashton’s, and becoming incredibly eager as soon as their mouths touch, Luke kisses him with much more purpose. And then it’s just so… easy, to get lost in the kiss. It’s so easy to forget about the outside world, as Luke’s lips tentatively move against his own and his fingers curl into the hairs at the back of Ashton’s neck.

This time around, Ashton allows Luke to control the pace, the angle, and everything in between. Luke kisses him slowly; gently, too. He moves his lips against Ashton’s as if kissing the older boy is all that he wants to do for the rest of forever. It probably is, at the moment. Either way, Ashton hums against his mouth and allows himself to get completely lost in the feeling.

Which explains why neither of them notice it, when they’re not alone anymore. They notice nothing until the sound of clapping and cheers come from above, startling them out of their trance. With wide eyes and deep blushes on their cheeks, they glance up to see that, of course, it’s Ashley and Michael who are interrupting their perfect moment.

“Hell yeah! Get it, Ash!” Ashley shouts, and she’s currently smiling like the proudest big sister, even if Ashton is technically older than her.

“Took you long enough,” Michael chimes in. He’s smiling just as much, though. That’s for sure. “By the way, and not to ruin the mood or anything, but when should we start blowing out all of these candles? My mum’ll be pissed if I don’t get home sooner or later. Again, don’t mean to ruin the mushy mood, but y’know.”

Although Ashton ends up rolling his eyes, he knows that Michael has a very good point. Plus, it won’t be fun at all if someone finally notices all of the little fires in the park and decides to call the fire department, or something like that. And, getting into trouble would no doubt ruin their chances of going to the formal, and there’s no way that Ashton will let that happen.

“Alright, I guess we’ll do it now,” he answers, sighing.

“Wait.” Turning to him with the most bashful smile, Luke says, “I really want to take pictures of it first? Um. For memory’s sake.”

Those words shouldn’t make Ashton blush as deeply as the kiss had, but they do. And he does. He can’t really help it, because he did all of this for Luke and knowing that the other boy actually does love it makes him so, _so_ happy. It’s hard to describe just how happy Ashton feels, in this moment. So, he doesn’t try to. Instead, he finds himself leaning closer to peck Luke’s lips since he can’t get enough of them, and easily ignores the low whistle from Ashley as well as Michael’s teasing words.

The only thing that Ashton focuses on is Luke’s inevitable smile, the taste of his lips, and his warmth. And for the first time in a long while, it’s more than enough.

In fact, everything is perfect again.

***

The days leading up to the formal dance are interesting, to say the least.

Things go back to normal, except they kind of don’t. In other words, Ashton continues to focus on his studies because, unfortunately, finals are still a thing. But now whenever Luke comes over to help him, they spend a lot of their ‘break’ periods sharing kisses and being disgustingly cute.

It’s the same thing at the comic book store, too. Ashton spends most of his shifts either talking to Luke, staring at Luke, or kissing Luke in the backroom during his lunch break. The latter only occurs a couple of times, though, because there isn’t any privacy in the store and Ashton’s friends keep walking in on them. It’s fairly annoying, but neither of them mind it too much, because they make up for it later on when Ashton walks Luke home.

Overall, Ashton finds himself falling for Luke more and more as each day passes them by, and he does absolutely nothing to stop this. This new level of intimacy between them has opened up a new side of Luke, one that Ashton never knew was there but now he values it more than anything. As a matter of fact, he’s not even too worried about his final exams because he’s far too excited about going to the formal with Luke, and he knows that they’ll have so much fun together. Just being with Luke is all that Ashton cares about, honestly. So, when the day finally arrives and he’s sitting downstairs at Luke’s house that evening, Ashton is practically unable to stop smiling.

At the moment, he’s having a conversation with Luke’s father, Andy, while Luke finishes getting ready upstairs—which is taking much longer than it should, but that’s alright because Ashton would wait for Luke forever, if that’s what it takes. As for now, he busies himself with listening to Andy’s hilarious story about some fishing trip gone terribly wrong, and he ends up laughing every few seconds because of it.

Thinking back to a few months before, Ashton almost wants to slap himself for being so nervous about the prospect of meeting Luke’s parents. Because when he finally did meet them, they were nothing but extremely kind to him, making him feel welcomed into their home. They’re genuinely nice people who don’t go to the extremes and threaten his life, just because he’s romantically involved with their son now, and that’s what Ashton loves about them most. They obviously trust him and Luke to make good choices, and neither of them had a problem with Ashton taking Luke to the formal, even though Luke isn’t in Year 12 yet and isn’t a student at Richmond, either. But Ashton will make sure to take great care of Luke tonight, that’s for sure.

Eventually, Ashton’s phone begins to ring and Andy politely excuses himself to give the boy a bit of privacy. But, Ashton almost regrets answering the call when his ear is met with a loud, overly excited greeting.

“Guess what!” Ashley practically screams into the phone, and in the background, Ashton can hear loud laughter and music blaring. “We’ve got the limo! Now we’re on our way to pick the two of you up! Will you guys be ready? Please tell me you’re not naked and getting each other off, or something.”

From the slurred speech, it’s easy to tell that Ashley has already had a couple of pre-drinks. Still, Ashton rolls his eyes at the teasing.

“Yeah, just give us another minute or so. Luke is still getting ready upstairs, something about his hair, I don’t know.”

In response to that, Ashley hums for a little longer than necessary as she comes up with a reply, and when she finally does, she laughs.

“Nervous to see your boy all dressed up, huh?”

And, okay, it’s certainly not the first time that she has referred to Luke as _his boy_ , and Michael is constantly calling them boyfriends, even though technically they haven’t established any labels, yet. Either way, Ashton still feels a deep blush creep onto his cheeks, and he’s so glad that he’s alone in the living room now, otherwise he’d be even more embarrassed.

“What? No, I—I’m not nervous, okay. That’s ridiculous,” he argues, but not very convincingly.

Ashley immediately calls his bluff. “Sure you aren’t, but your voice says otherwise!” She laughs again, and so does another person in the background, but Ashton doesn’t ask because he already knows who it is. “You’ll be fine, Ash, really. Just… compliment his hair or whatever, and try not to stare at his ass in front of his parents. That part can be a bit tough, but you’ve got this.”

Before Ashton gets a chance to argue that he has a lot more willpower and self-restraint than she gives him credit for, Ashley speaks up again.

“Anyway, we’ll be there soon, so try not to take all night!”

She hangs up without another word, and Ashton leans back into the comfortable couch with a sigh. He supposes that what she’d said is very true: he is nervous, but admitting it doesn’t help anything at all. It’s just that it’s been so long since he’s gone to another social event, not counting Ollie’s get-together a couple of months back. Because of his general back luck, Ashton has this irrational fear that somehow he’s going to screw things up, and Luke won’t want anything to do with him after tonight.

But, to be honest, he’ll just have to suck it up. Despite the irrational fear, Ashton refuses to do anything but his very best. He’s going to show Luke a good time, as well as show him just how much he’s cared for. Because Ashton really _does_ care about Luke and is currently still working on giving him the world. It’ll probably take a while to reach that goal, but it’s much better than having no goal at all and nothing to look forward to.

All of a sudden, the sound of footsteps can be heard descending the staircase, and Ashton’s heart instantly starts to race.

“Sorry about the wait,” comes Liz’s voice from around the corner, and then she appears in the living room with that typical _mom_ expression, the one that means she’s trying her hardest to remain patient and to keep a good attitude. “Mister sixteen asked for my help, but then decided that he didn’t need it, right before changing his mind again. I hope that we didn’t waste too much time?”

Ashton rapidly shakes his head as he stands up from the couch and moves towards the entryway. “No, it’s fine, honestly. I don’t mind the wait at all. Besides, our ride is still on the way and should be here any minute now.”

“Thank goodness, then,” Liz says with a sigh. Ashton just smiles at her and she smiles back, and it feels natural. “But for future reference, he does this all of the time, so if you ever plan on taking him somewhere, make sure to get at least an hour head start.”

Ashton genuinely laughs at that, but before he’s able to thank her for the tip, their brief conversation is interrupted by a third voice and footsteps descending the stairs again.

“That’s not _always_ true,” Luke corrects her, but the tone of his voice means that it’s definitely true, and now he’s just pouting because his mother is embarrassing him in front of his crush, as per usual.

However, Luke’s pout is the last thing that Ashton notices. When the other boy finally enters the room, it’s safe to say that Ashton is completely blown away by just how different Luke looks right now, in his formal clothing and quiffed up hair. At least, Ashton thinks that it’s called a quiff? He’s not too sure, but it doesn’t matter because Luke looks so damn _good_ , practically edible, in fact. Since it wouldn’t be appropriate to say those exact words aloud, Ashton doesn’t say anything at first. He simply stares with wide, intrigued eyes until he notices Luke nervously chewing on his bottom lip and staring down at his feet.

“Wow, Luke,” Ashton says as he recovers from the slight shock. “I’m… I’m speechless.”

Luke looks up again with raised brows, and with a half-smirk, he asks, “Like, in a good way? Or in a bad way?”

The older boy manages not to roll his eyes as he smiles back. “Obviously in a good way. I mean, you look incredible! And, god, your hair—now I see why it took such a long time to do, but it looks amazing. Just like you.”

“Thanks,” Luke murmurs bashfully, and it has to be the cutest thing. “You don’t look too bad, either. Actually, you look really nice.”

Those words are all that it takes to make Ashton beam with joy, as if he wasn’t already doing that, but whatever. He’s happy so he’s going to smile, not caring that at this rate, his cheeks will be sore by the end of the night. But they’ll be sore because of Luke Hemmings, and he’s perfectly alright with that.

The sudden buzzing of Ashton’s phone interrupts their mutual staring as they check each other out, and he doesn’t even need to see who the text is from to know exactly who it is and what it means.

“Crap, they’re probably waiting for us outside now. Are you ready to go?”

Luke nods eagerly in response, but then his mother returns out of nowhere with a big camera in her hands, and Andy is following right behind with an apologetic look on his face, as if he tried to stop her but failed to do so.

“Let me just take a few pictures first, boys,” Liz says, and she doesn’t give them much of a choice, either, because she starts positioning them to stand how she wants them to, and she instructs Andy to turn on another lamp to make the living room brighter.

“Just a few pics, Lizard, and then we let them get to their fancy party. Right?” Andy tries, as if knowing that his wife will definitely go overboard with the photos.

The fact that he doesn’t get a response probably means that he’s right. Oh well, the bright smile on Ashton’s face doesn’t leave for a single second, and while Liz takes their picture a thousand times in the brightly lit living room, he honestly couldn’t be happier. When Ashton slides his hand into Luke’s and interlocks their fingers, the younger boy squeezes his a little, and he just knows that Luke feels the same.

Thankfully, they’re only held captive for those five minutes of endless picture taking before they’re finally allowed to leave. As anticipated, the white limousine is waiting for them down by the side walk, and Ashton is still clutching Luke’s hand as they approach it. But when they do, Ashton suddenly remembers his manners and jumps forward to grasp the handle of the car.

“After you,” he says, wanting to be as much of a gentleman as possible. After all, Luke _does_ deserve only the finest treatment.

Even so, the younger boy rolls his eyes and giggles softly. He doesn’t resist the special treatment, though, so he allows Ashton to open the door for him to get into the vehicle. The sound of loud music and cheering instantly greets them both. Still grinning, Luke slides into the limo and Ashton follows directly behind him.

“Look who’s finally joined the party!” Ashley announces, and all eyes in the vehicle turn to see the newcomers, greeting them with more cheering and incoherent shouts that can’t be heard over the music.

Most of these people are friends with Ashley, either from one of the clubs that she’s in or random classmates that she hangs out with. Ashton wouldn’t refer to most of them as his own friends, but thanks to Ashley, he knows all of their names and considers them to be acquaintances. All except a few of them who actually _are_ his friends, such as Oliver, Andy, Zakk, and…

Dylan. Dylan is in the limousine, too, and it looks like he has somehow managed to convince Leighton to be his date, despite the guy being a little bit older than everyone else. Anyway, they’re both here and they look really nice, especially Dylan, who is now smiling at Ashton and waving enthusiastically. They’re not sitting close enough to hear each other over the music, but he mouths the words _you look hot!_ to Ashton and gives him two thumbs up.

It’s kind of funny, how it suddenly feels like everything has gone back to the way that they used to be. Even though Ashton started to avoid Dylan again, after the get-together at Ollie’s, all those weeks ago. Even though he mostly forgot about Dylan altogether, when he began to develop feelings for Luke instead. Ashton hasn’t seen nor talked to Dylan much in a really long time, yet while sitting in the same limousine together, he starts to think that maybe there is a chance of repairing their friendship. Properly, this time, now that he has moved on and found someone that he really likes. Someone who likes him just as much.

After waving back to Dylan and silently thanking him, Ashton turns around to give his undivided attention to his perfect date. He finds Luke staring at Ashley with an amused smile on his face, as the girl babbles on and on about something to do with a chocolate fountain. Ashton guesses that she may have had even more pre-drinks on the way to pick them up from Luke’s house. She’s having a great time, though, and that’s what matters most of all.

Not wanting to interrupt his tipsy best friend, Ashton turns to her date instead, who is sitting on the other side of Ashley. Lynn is already looking at Ashton when they make eye contact, and the smile on his face widens.

“You look fucking gorgeous, Lynn!” he shouts to her, and if her cheeks weren’t already a bit red from the alcohol, he’s sure that she would have blushed.

“Thank you. You’re lookin’ pretty sharp yourself!” she shouts back to him.

Right as Ashton is in the middle of complimenting her beautiful black gown, someone kicks him in the foot a little less than gently in order to grab his attention.

“Why haven’t you complimented _my_ dress, yet? Huh?” Ashley huffs, because of course she’s the culprit. She folds her arms over her chest and waits for an explanation, frowning sadly and looking betrayed. Which, y’know, is mainly a drunken reaction.

Regardless of her inebriated state, Ashton answers in an annoyed tone. “Aw, c’mon! This is the first time that I’ve seen Lynn’s dress, whereas I’m pretty sure that you’ve sent me _at least_ ten selfies of your dress the day that you got it, and five more selfies earlier today.”

Ashley doesn’t stop pouting, though, and Ashton knows that he’s lost this round.

But, Luke beats him to it. “You’re really beautiful, Ashley.”

“Why, thank you, Lukey!” She smiles happily and dramatically throws her arms around him for a hug. Pretending to whisper, she says, “You’re my new favorite, just so you know!”

“That’s not fair!” Ashton whines, and Luke laughs because he’s such a traitor.

It’s going to be a long ride to the reception centre.

***

For the first time in over a year, Ashton doesn’t feel nervous about being at a big party with tons of other people. Technically, it’s a different type of party than what he used to prefer, but still. He doesn’t feel an ounce of anxiety when they arrive at the reception centre and enter the huge room full of people in pretty dresses and nice suits. He only focuses on the people who matter, such as his friends, Ashley, and Luke.

Ashton focuses on Luke most of all. He really, really likes Luke. And, okay, so that has already been established, but he especially likes Luke tonight. He likes the way that Luke looks, likes the cologne that he’s wearing, likes his bashful smiles and genuine laughs, _loves_ the blush on his cheeks when Ashton holds his hand or leads him by the small of his back. The blush may also have something to do with the alcohol, but Ashton still takes it as his own victory.

Overall, the night begins with a lot of fun. Ashton introduces Luke to anyone and everyone who matters, like Oliver and Andy, and even Dylan. It wasn’t at all hard to guess that Dylan would like Luke a lot, because Dylan likes pretty everyone. Even Leighton talks to Luke a bit, and he isn’t wearing his sunglasses this time, so Ashton is able to see that he has really soft eyes, which makes him look a lot less intimidating. Maybe the fact that he’s much more approachable this time around is why Ashton ends up having a lengthy conversation with the guy, once he learns that Leighton likes to play the drums, too. Apparently he’s in a band and wants to become a rock star, and Ashton has no doubts that he’ll reach his dreams.

However, despite all of the lively conversations, the average-sounding music, and the drinking, the excitement starts to die down after the first two hours. If he’s being honest, Ashton has never been too keen on these type of events, because they’re far too tame and posh for his liking. He used to be into much more casual events, where there weren’t any rules or adults breathing down his neck. The latter seems to be the case for this particular night, which is to be expected, since it _is_ the biggest event of the year for his school. Even if he wanted to do something wild, he wouldn’t be able to get away with it because the chaperones are practically everywhere.

Eventually, Ashton finds himself sitting at a table with Luke, Ashley, and Lynn, since there isn’t much of anything else to do. They’ve eaten a little bit of the food that’s been served, but to be honest, it isn’t as tasty as it looks. Therefore, Ashton gives up on eating and resorts to watching his best friend attempt to get her date to dance with her for the hundredth time.

“Lynn, it’s a _dance_. So that’s what we’re supposed to do: dance!” Ashley continues to insist, tugging on her girlfriend’s arm. She’s got that usual pout on her face, the one that not even Ashton can resist, so he already knows who’s going to be the winner of this battle, in the end.

“Fine, _okay_ ,” Lynn gives in with a sigh, just as anticipated. “My feet are killing me and I blame you for convincing me to wear these devil shoes, but okay. One more dance and then I’m throwing these things into the garbage.”

Hardly deterred by that threat, Ashley smiles and tugs the other girl onto the dancefloor with her, where a few people are already embarrassing themselves with silly dance moves or inappropriate grinding that the chaperones quickly put an end to. Ashton has never been much of a dancer, except when he’s drunk, alone, or purposely trying to be silly with a group of friends. As for actual dance moves, he has none and would prefer not to embarrass himself, thank you very much. It’s nice to watch all of his friends have fun, though. Really nice.

A soft sigh on his left gains Ashton’s attention, and he turns his head to look at the boy still sitting next to him. Luke looks rather _bored_ , to say the least. He’s playing with his fingernails and not paying much attention to anything else, as if nothing else in the room is as entertaining as his own fingers. That instantly worries Ashton, because Luke is his date and he’s supposed to be showing him a good time, and giving him the world. But, there isn’t much else to do here, besides dancing, talking, drinking and eating. They’ve done the latter three quite enough, because the food isn’t that great and Ashton doesn’t want to get totally wasted—not tonight.

Dancing is the one thing that they haven’t done together yet, mainly because Ashton only knows how to dance in particular circumstances, and since Luke hasn’t mentioned anything about wanting to dance, he just assumed that the younger boy didn’t want to. However, if there’s one thing that Ashton has learned in the past couple of months, it’s that assuming things never leads to a fun time, so he really shouldn’t do it. And from the look of sheer boredom on Luke’s face, as well as how he glances to the dancefloor every now and then, Ashton begins to think that perhaps his assumption had been false.

So, even though Ashton would prefer not to, he sucks it up because he really does want to be a good date. He knows that he’ll do anything to make Luke happy, and that’s precisely why he nudges the other boy to get his attention, smiling when Luke finally looks back at him.

Ashton still sounds a bit awkward when he asks: “Do you wanna like… dance?”

It turns out to be a good idea, since Luke starts to smile. He nods his head and takes Ashton’s hand when it’s offered to him, then allows the older boy to lead him to the dancefloor that isn’t too full anymore. This is probably because a much slower song has started to play, and only some people are down for slow dancing instead of wild grinding and mindless jumping. Ashton almost laughs when he sees that Ashley and Lynn are still on the dancefloor, despite Lynn’s words from a few minutes before. This just proves that she’ll do anything to keep her girlfriend happy, in a similar way that Ashton will do anything for Luke.

Speaking of Luke, he looks a bit nervous now as Ashton faces him and pulls him closer.

“You okay?” Ashton asks, frowning in concern.

Luke more or less just shrugs and says, “Honestly? I don’t really know how to do… this. And, I know that that’s stupid because, like, who comes to a dance and _wants_ to dance but gets nervous when they actually have to do it? Me, I guess.”

He says all of that rather quickly and Ashton has a hard time keeping up, but speaking fast out of nervousness is just another one of Luke’s adorable habits that Ashton has come to love, so he simply smiles and shakes his head.

“Well, me neither? I only ever dance at parties when I’m really drunk, and even then, I have no clue what I’m doing.” When Luke smiles just the slightest bit at those words, Ashton takes that as his cue to continue. “But, y’know, it’s alright. Just don’t focus on anyone else, okay? Pretend that it’s just us.”

Even so, Luke is still nervously glancing around at all of the people surrounding them, prompting Ashton to reach down and gently grab his chin until Luke is looking at no one but him. Then, Ashton positions Luke’s arms around his shoulders and places his hands on the boy’s waist, feeling proud of himself when Luke blushes at the closeness of their bodies and the warm hands against him. He keeps his eyes on Ashton, though. No one else.

And then it’s nothing short of perfection: swaying this way and that way with Luke, the younger boy apologizing a dozen times when he steps on Ashton’s shoe, Ashton giggling just because he’s still happy. It’s perfect, because Michael Buble is playing throughout the large room full of people, who have their own lives and goals and dreams; but the only one who truly matters, the one who will undoubtedly always matter most of all, is the beautiful boy standing in front of Ashton.

All of a sudden, during the second verse of the song, Luke starts to giggle. He bows his head so that they’re no longer making eye contact, and giggles softly, chirpily, but it still confuses Ashton because it came out of nowhere.

“Hm? What’s so funny, cutie?” he inquires, grinning despite his confusion.

Luke shakes his head as if he doesn’t plan on explaining, but with that same smile on his face, he eventually does.

“I guess I just never thought that we’d end up here?” Luke pauses, and chews on his bottom lip as he gathers his thoughts. “I mean, I didn’t think that I could have something like this… ever. Like, just a few months ago, you were just that really cute cashier at the comic store that I was too much of a lame ass to talk to, and now… well, now we’re dancing to lame music while wearing barely comfortable suits, and I couldn’t be happier? Shit, I still can’t believe that any of it is real.”

While Luke speaks, one of Ashton’s hands automatically come up to cup the side of his face, and he uses his thumb to stroke the soft skin of Luke’s cheek. And, it’s probably such a cheesy thing to do, especially on top of everything else that has happened tonight, but Luke leans into the touch regardless. He leans into it as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, and it fills Ashton with warmth.

“Trust me, Luke, all of it is real.” Upon getting a brilliant idea, Ashton smirks and adds, “Want me to prove it to you?”

Out of curiosity, Luke nods, so Ashton closes the small distance between them and plants a chaste kiss on his lips. It’s no surprise at all when Luke reacts by blushing even more and trying to hide his face in Ashton’s neck. He really is way too cute for his own good, so Ashton holds him closer and makes a silent promise to himself, a promise that he’ll not only keep Luke happy, but he’ll be the one to always protect him as well.

They’re unsure of how long they dance together, but after three slow songs in a row, the music picks up again and everyone starts dancing to a faster beat. Ashton bobs his head to the music, but Luke says that he isn’t up for dancing anymore, so they attempt to find something better to do with their time. That’s when Ashton notices the slight frown on the other boy’s face, even though he’d been so happy just a few seconds before.

“What’s the matter?” he asks.

Luke places a hand on his tummy. “Just a bit hungry…”

In truth, the other boy looks much more than ‘a bit hungry’, which is more than justified, considering the fact that he consumed an even smaller amount of the not-so-great food than Ashton had. If he’s truly hungry, then he’s probably not going to want the same thing again, and that’s a little bit of a problem because there isn’t anything else to eat at the reception centre.

However, maybe they can find what they’re hoping for elsewhere. The sudden idea makes Ashton smile mischievously.

“Well, since the food here is pretty shit, whadaya say we ditch and get something better?”

Luke blinks, tilting his head to the side. “We can do that?”

“Why not?” Ashton counters. “You’re hungry, I’m hungry, and I think I know the perfect place that can solve this dilemma.”

After glancing around the noisy room one last time, Luke looks back at Ashton and a slow smile begins to form on his lips. Ashton knows that he’s in, even before he says it a moment later.

“Okay, show me.”

***

They leave the reception centre about ten minutes later, when Ashton manages to convince the limousine driver to give them a ride to the diner that his mother works at. Since he helped with part of the renting fee, he gets partial ownership for the night, therefore the driver is able to drop them off at where they want to be but won’t wait around all night for them. Ashton is fine with that, though, because he doesn’t live too far from his mother’s workplace, so afterwards they can always take their time walking home.

“What do you mean you’ve never been here before?” Ashton asks, appalled, as he opens the door to the little diner and lets Luke enter first.

Luke gives a small shrug as he looks around the place. “I don’t know, my family and I never really go out for breakfast? When we do go to restaurants, it’s usually to a place that serves dinner food and nothing more.”

Seeing this as his chance to truly shine, Ashton leads Luke over to one of the empty booths, a smug grin on his face as they take their seats because there isn’t anything that he _doesn’t_ know about this place. In fact, it’s almost like a second home.

“Well, tonight is your lucky night, Lukey boy. You’re about to learn that having breakfast for dinner is the best kind of dinner that there is,” Ashton states matter-of-factly.

Before Luke has a chance to respond to that, they’re approached by a waitress with a familiar smile and a sweet, welcoming voice. As soon as the woman recognizes who she’s serving, her smile widens as she sets the menus down onto the table between them.

“Is that you, Ashton? Anne’s boy?” she asks excitedly, though by the tone of her voice, it’s clear that she already knows the answer to that question. Still, Ashton nods to confirm it. “My, my, it’s been so long since I’ve last seen you! You know that your mother is off work tonight, right? Oh, and nice outfit, by the way. You look good, just like a proper young man!”

The speed at which the waitress says all of that is certainly nothing new, if Ashton remembers correctly. But what he does remember most of all, is that she has always been the nicest waitress at the diner, ever since he was a little boy. He remembers sitting at the breakfast bar on one of the stools, and having to do his homework at this place because his mother couldn’t hire a babysitter at the time. Anne would occasionally check on him to see if he needed any help, before going back to serving customers.

It was this particular waitress, named Jessie, who would always find some way to entertain Ashton when he was bored and his mother was busy. Ashton used to call her Auntie back then, mainly because everyone did. It makes him unbelievably happy to see that she still remembers him, even though he hardly comes into the diner these days.

Ashton smiles at the old memories. “Hey, Jessie, long time no see. And thanks, tonight was the formal dance at my school, so.” He turns his gaze to the boy sitting across from him, who has suddenly gone all shy and quiet. “Jess, this is my date, Luke. He’s never been here before, so I figured that I’d show him what a real breakfast tastes like, especially since the pancakes are to die for.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” Luke murmurs, sounding almost as bashful as the first time that he met Anne. There isn’t any reason to be nervous, though, so Ashton nudges his foot beneath the table in hopes of reassuring him. It seems to work a little, because Luke starts to smile.

“It’s really nice to meet you, too, hun!” Jessie says, smiling down at the younger boy. “And not to worry, you’re gonna see that Ash is telling the truth about our pancakes. But first can I start y’all off with anything to drink?”

With his eyes still focused on Luke, Ashton suggests, “Hmm… how about apple juice?”

Just as hoped, Luke’s smile instantly widens and he nods in agreement.

“Apple juice it is, then.” Jessie scribbles the order down into the little notepad in her hand. Afterwards, she tucks the notepad into her pocket and gives the two of them a knowing smile. “I’ll see if the chef can whip you up a couple of pancakes for now, alright? Just so that you can give it a try before ordering more.”

Before leaving their table with the promise of free pancakes, Jessie gives Ashton an obvious wink that makes him laugh a little.

“I like her. She’s nice,” Luke declares as soon as they’re alone again.

Ashton nods. “Yeah, she really is.”

After that, Luke goes a little quiet again as he stares down at the menu in front of him, though it doesn’t look like he’s actually reading it. Every now and then he glances up to stare at Ashton, but whenever the older boy catches him doing so, he looks away and resorts to chewing on his bottom lip. Ashton has long since figured out what the lip chewing means. Luke mainly does it when he’s nervous or wants to ask something, but isn’t sure if he should.

Thus, Ashton nudges Luke’s foot again to get his attention.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. When Luke quickly shakes his head, Ashton insists. “It’s okay, you can tell me and I’ll fix it, whatever it is.”

Luke suddenly lifts the menu so that it’s hiding most of his face, which Ashton takes as a hint to just drop it, even though he has no idea what he’s done now to kill the mood. But, then the other boy speaks up in that same bashful tone from before, and he asks:

“Can you… sit on this side? With me?”

It literally takes all of Ashton’s inner strength not to squeal because, like, how can someone possibly be this fucking cute? The sheer level of cuteness is just too unreal, yet here Luke is, hiding behind a plastic food menu to cover his blush, all because of a simple request. It’s unfair, but at the same time, Ashton wonders how he ended up so lucky.

Without another word, Ashton stands up and moves to the other side of the table, then slides in next to Luke. As soon as he does, Luke scoots as close as physically possible to him, so that their arms are brushing and their legs are touching. Apparently this closeness is all that it takes to make Luke relax again, and honestly, Ashton doesn’t mind the sudden clinginess a single bit.

“Is that better?” he asks, grinning.

Luke nods once but doesn’t meet Ashton’s eyes. Probably still embarrassed. “Mhm… now help me pick something to eat, I’m starving.”

Laughing, Ashton does as he’s told and helps Luke pick something to eat from the menu, though they briefly argue over whether sausage or bacon is more appropriate to have alongside the rest of their meal. In the end, they agree to just get both, and when Jessie comes back to give them their juice and take their order, it doesn’t take long at all before their meals are being placed in front of them.

Everything looks absolutely delicious, but when the large stack of pancakes is set down on the table, Ashton’s jaw drops for another reason aside from his hunger. Either Valentine’s Day has come early, or Jessie and the chefs are teasing them by giving them heart-shaped pancakes. It definitely had to be Jessie’s doing, since it looks like she’s trying to hold back a smile when she asks them if there’s anything else they need, before leaving them alone again.

God, Ashton can only hope that she won’t tell Anne about this and how cute he’s being with his date. She probably will, though.

She _definitely_ will.

“I’m too old for this type of teasing,” Ashton grumbles, though mainly to himself.

Luke giggles because, apparently, it’s funny to him. “I don’t know, I think it’s really cute. And, at least the butter isn’t heart-shaped, too?”

Well, he certainly has a point there, but Ashton doesn’t like the half-smirk on his lips so he simply rolls his eyes in response.

“Shush now, before I eat all of the pancakes myself!” As if to prove it, Ashton pours a hefty amount of syrup onto the pancakes and digs in with his fork, humming with delight after he tastes the first bite because it truly is delicious.

Since it’s the wise thing to do, Luke follows his lead and eagerly scoops up a forkful of the sweet pancake. Instead of humming when he tastes it, he literally lets out a _moan_ that would’ve made Ashton choke on his food, had he not swallowed beforehand. Unsurprisingly, Luke is oblivious to what he’s just done, and only focuses on the yummy pancake that he’s chewing.

“This is the best damn pancake that I’ve ever had in my entire _life_ ,” he says, shoving more of it between his lips.

“Told ya so!” Ashton is beaming with pride as he watches Luke eat rather sloppily.

Without really thinking about it, Ashton picks up a napkin from the table and gently wipes the syrup off the side of Luke’s mouth. And it feels so natural, the way that Luke leans into the touch and quietly thanks him afterwards. It also feels natural when Luke feeds some of the pancake to Ashton, and purposely smears a bit of it against his lips. Of course Ashton gets revenge by kissing the other boy’s cheek afterwards with his sticky lips, and of course Luke laughs and pushes him away.

Most of all, it feels natural when they end up just staring at each other with dopey smiles on their faces, until Ashton leans in and kisses Luke’s lips this time. Of course Luke kisses him back without any sort of hesitation. Of course it’s a perfect kiss that makes Ashton’s heart thump wildly in his chest, even though it’s slow and gentle and a little sticky. And, of course he minds none of that at all.

When they finally break the kiss and Ashton pulls away, he doesn’t actually. He stays in Luke’s space, breathing in his air and feeling so content that he nearly forgets where they are at the moment, but then again, it hardly matters as long as he’s with Luke.

“You taste like maple syrup,” he murmurs, his thumb swiping over Luke’s slick bottom lip. He grins, kisses Luke once more and says, “I like it.”

A genuine smile slowly forms on the younger boy’s face and he pecks Ashton’s thumb before replying, “Well, you taste like dork. I like it.”

“Oi! Don’t be mean, I’m trying to be _romantic_ ,” Ashton whines, pretending to be offended. But he really isn’t, and Luke knows that, so he laughs softly and of course Ashton laughs with him, then kisses him again just because that’s a thing that they can do now.

Sitting in that nearly-empty diner together while feeding pancakes to each other and giggling like fools, Ashton starts to feel invincible. He feels so happy and content, as if he can definitely take on the world right now. He starts to think that this is what true happiness feels like: not giving a damn about the things from before or about what’s to come afterwards, and simply enjoying the present. He feels like he can keep doing this for as long as he lives.

With a bit of luck, perhaps he actually will.

***

They’re standing outside of the diner a little while later, when Ashton finally looks at the time on his phone and is surprised to find that it’s midnight. He doesn’t remember what time it had been when they first left the dance, but he knows that they took their sweet time eating and giving each other kisses in between bites like the couple of saps that they are. It was perfect, though. It’s _still_ perfect, despite what he knows he should ask next, since he doesn’t really want to.

But because he has to, Ashton clears his throat. “So, uh… the after-party should be going on right now. Did you still want to go?”

It doesn’t look like Luke gives it much thought, since he instantly shakes his head.

“Way too stuffed and sleepy to party,” he explains, then yawns afterwards, which basically proves his point.

Ashton smiles because it’s kind of adorable. “Okay, then. Do you want to call your parents to see if they’re still awake? If not, then I’m sure that I can find another way to get you home safely.”

This time Luke seems to think about the suggestion for a short moment, but then he shakes his head again. It’s even more adorable how, despite everything that has happened tonight, he still looks bashful when he speaks up again.

“I just wanna stay with you. Um, if that’s okay?”

It shouldn’t be all that surprising, but it is, and Ashton doesn’t really know what to say at first. Mainly because Luke has never slept over his house before, and he’s never slept over Luke’s. But, now Luke is proposing to do just that, and to be honest, Ashton can’t think of anything that he’d like more.

“Of course it’s okay!” he answers, trying extremely hard to contain his excitement—and failing. “It’s more than okay. If, like, if you’re sure that that’s what you want to do.”

Luke nods easily. “It is.”

“Oh. Okay.” Ashton doesn’t try to contain his excitement now, not that he could even if he wanted to. “Well, lucky for us, my house isn’t too far from here so there’s no need to call a cab. Uh, if you’re ready to go now, that is. Are you?”

Again, Luke nods with confidence. He surprises Ashton for the second time that night, when he slides his hand into the Ashton’s and interlocks their fingers, his smile shy and his eyes brighter than the moon above them.

It’s certainly not an exaggeration when Ashton briefly thinks that he may be in love. The thought crosses his mind and then it’s gone, and for the first time he doesn’t stress on it. Instead, he squeezes Luke’s hand in his own and begins to lead the way.

He begins to lead them home.

***

“I can’t see anything,” Luke whispers to him in the dark, and maybe it’s just Ashton’s imagination, but he sounds a little afraid.

“Hold on a sec.” Ashton digs into his pocket and retrieves his phone to use as a flashlight. Once it’s on, Luke sighs and relaxes.

“That’s better,” he says, but reaches for Ashton’s hand anyway. That’s okay, though. Ashton will never get tired of holding his hand.

He uses the flashlight to lead them through the pitch black living room of his home and towards the staircase. Theoretically, it would be much easier to just turn the lights on, but Ashton convinces himself that the excess light will awaken his family, even though they’re all asleep in their respective bedrooms upstairs. Besides, doing it this way feels as if they’re sneaking in and don’t want to get caught, so it’s much more exciting—especially since Luke clings to him until they reach their destination, aka Ashton’s bedroom. Once there, Ashton turns on the light and closes the door behind them.

It suddenly feels a little awkward. First of all, Ashton has no idea what he’s supposed to do now, since they didn’t plan anything on the way over and simply stuck to small talk. Second of all, he’s never slept in the same room as someone that he’s sort of _with_ romantically, even if nothing is official yet. And third of all, Ashton owns a twin bed. There are two of them, and if he’s done the math correctly, then this probably won’t work out.

Perhaps Luke is thinking of the same thing, because now he’s standing in the middle of the room and looking unsure of what to do. He’s still the guest, though, so Ashton will do the polite thing by making sure that he’s as comfortable as possible.

“Um… if you want to get some rest now, I can give you something to change into. Y’know, since you obviously don’t have any of your own pajamas here. Would that be okay with you?”

Luke responds by nodding as he takes a seat on the edge of Ashton’s mattress, so Ashton moves towards the dresser and begins to search through it. He eventually pulls out one of his own band t-shirts that he totally forgot he owns, and holds it up to see if it’s still wearable. There’s a little hole in it, but other than that, he thinks that it’s perfect to sleep in.

“Do you want pajama bottoms, too?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder in case Luke just nods again.

“No, just the shirt is fine,” Luke answers.

Ashton nods and closes the drawer. “Good, because I don’t have anything aside from trackies, and I don’t think you wanna wake up in a pool of your own sweat.”

Luke huffs out a quiet laugh, but other than that, he says nothing. So, Ashton brings the shirt over to the bed and hands it to him.

“Thanks,” the boy mutters, clutching the old shirt in his hands. He doesn’t go about putting it on, though. In fact, Luke just stares at the shirt for a moment before glancing up at Ashton with nervous eyes as he chews on his lip. A couple of months ago, Ashton would have no idea why he’s suddenly behaving strangely, but now that he _knows_ Luke and has been paying attention to the little details, it doesn’t take him long at all to understand what the look on Luke’s face means.

“Oh! Um, right. Sorry.” Ashton stops staring at him and turns the other way to give him some privacy. By now, he knows all about Luke’s insecurity over his body, and even though they kiss a lot and hold hands sometimes, they haven’t done anything more than that and Ashton doesn’t want to make Luke uncomfortable. So, he busies himself with getting undressed so that he can change out of his own fancy clothing, too.

By the time that Ashton turns around again, Luke is buried beneath the covers so that only his head is visible. The sight alone makes Ashton’s heart ache for two reasons. The first reason is that Luke looks so fucking small like this, curled up on the mattress and blinking slowly because he really is sleepy. The second reason is that Ashton has imagined having Luke in his bed many times—yes, some of those times were of the sexual nature, but he also imagined having Luke just like this, looking comfy and beautiful. God, so beautiful.

It’s best not to think about that now, though. Especially considering that Ashton is only in his underwear, so certain _things_ would be noticeable.

Ashton smiles at the other boy as he passes the bed to go into his closet, where he starts to bring out a sleeping bag for himself so that the floor will be less cruel to his body. However, Luke stops him before he can set everything up.

“What are you doing with that?” he asks, the only words that he’s spoken in the last few minutes of awkward silence.

“Uh, I plan to sleep in it? So that I don’t wake up with an aching back,” Ashton explains.

But, Luke slowly shakes his head and scoots back towards the wall to make more room on the bed. Then, he pats the empty space on the mattress.

“Sleep here.”

Ashton merely blinks at him, but when it becomes clear that Luke isn’t joking, he starts to blush a little. “Are you sure…?”

This time Luke nods. “Yeah. I mean… it’s your bed, and like… I don’t mind? At all.” He isn’t really looking at Ashton while he speaks, instead deciding that staring at his hand is the best option to go with, but he sounds like he means it. It sounds as if Luke really wants to share the bed with him.

That makes Ashton very, very happy.

“Alright, then, I guess.” He tosses the sleeping bag back into the closet without a care, and closes the door with even less of an effort. Before joining the other boy beneath the covers, Ashton walks over to the light switch and flicks it off, engulfing the room in darkness. It instantly turns out to be a not-so-great idea, though.

“Ashton,” Luke whispers, in that same slightly frightened tone from when they had first entered the home. “Can you… can you leave a light on? Like, not the ceiling one, but a different one so that it won’t be so dark in here… please?”

Though it’s an odd request and Ashton starts to frown at first, he eventually understands why Luke is afraid of the dark. Or rather, dark _rooms_ , since he hadn’t been afraid while they were walking along the dark sidewalks outside. His fear of dark rooms is completely understandable and valid, and now Ashton also remembers that Luke sleeps with a night lamp in his own room. So, without asking any questions, he walks over to his desk and turns on the small lamp, making sure to face it the other way so that the light won’t shine in their eyes.

“Is that better, Lukey?” Ashton asks, his voice gentle and soothing.

Luke lets out a small, cute yawn and he smiles afterwards. “That’s perfect, now come over here.”

He begins to make grabby hands at the older boy, so Ashton giggles and makes his way over towards the bed at last. As he slithers beneath the covers and pulls it up to his shoulder, he finds that despite the twin sized mattress, it’s the perfect amount of space for himself and Luke. He also finds Luke smiling at him, and as soon as he makes himself comfortable, the younger boy closes the small distance between them and nuzzles into Ashton’s neck. Now, things are _definitely_ perfect.

Smiling to himself, Ashton brings a hand up and slowly cards his fingers through Luke’s silky blond hair. Luke hums at the soft petting, happy and content, just as he always should be. When he eventually looks up and finds that Ashton is already looking down at him, he grins.

“Hi,” he whispers.

“Hi,” Ashton whispers back to him.

He predicts when Luke tilts his head up and presses their lips together a moment later, and it still manages to leave Ashton feeling warm and fuzzy inside, even when Luke eventually pulls away to gaze into his eyes once more.

“Can I tell you something?”

Ashton nods as he allows his fingers to play in the boy’s hair again. “You can tell me anything.”

So Luke does. “I’m pretty sure that tonight was the best night of my life so far.”

That confession is certainly not what Ashton had been expecting, so he raises his eyebrows and doesn’t hesitate in questioning those words.

“Really? For a while there, I thought that I was just boring you…”

Luke shakes his head slightly. “No, I wasn’t bored at all? I mean, yeah, the dance was pretty lame, but all school dances are lame, aren’t they? What makes them fun are the friends that you go with and anyone else that matters… like you, for instance. You matter to me a lot.”

At the moment, Ashton doesn’t even care that he smiles like the biggest dork in the history of dorks. His happiness from hearing those words is enough to rid him of any embarrassment that he feels. To be fair, he’s sure that most people would react in the same way, if the person that they were falling for said these same exact words to them.

Still smiling, Ashton asks, “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” Luke replies, nodding eagerly.

“I think that tonight may have been the greatest night of my life, too,” Ashton admits.

Who knows exactly how Luke reacts to that, because just when he starts to smile, he buries his face against Ashton’s neck again to hide. But Ashton doesn’t really give him a chance to, since he gently grabs Luke by the chin and tilts his head up so that they’re making eye contact again.

In the most serious tone that he can manage right now, Ashton says: “There isn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for you. You know that, right?”

At first Luke begins to smile, but somehow he manages to contain himself from gushing over that, since apparently there’s something that he would like to say as well.

“Would you still want to be with me, after this?” he asks shyly, looking a bit uncertain. “Even though I’ll still be in school and you… you won’t be.”

Ashton doesn’t even need to think about his answer before he blurts it out. “Of course I still want to be with you.” He truly means it, too, but the expression on Luke’s face tells him that the other boy is still skeptical. Ashton will just have to find another way to prove it, and he thinks that he knows exactly how. Taking a deep breath, he utters the question that he’s been meaning to ask for so long now. “Lukey… will you be my boyfriend?”

Luke’s reaction to that has to be the greatest thing that Ashton has seen in a while. His eyes go really wide and he opens and closes his mouth several times, his speech failing him for the first few seconds. He looks just as happy as he does surprised, though. That’s for sure.

Finally, Luke nods as confidently as ever. “Yeah,” he whispers, smiling so wide that it makes Ashton smiles, too. “Yeah… yeah, of course I will. If you’ll have me, that is.”

Even with the amount of happiness that he feels right now, Ashton can’t help rolling his eyes at the latter statement.

“Of course I’ll have you, Luke, that’s exactly why I asked in the first—”

Luke shuts him up with a sudden kiss, which Ashton will certainly not object to. As a matter of fact, he highly doubts that he’ll ever object to kissing Luke, touching Luke, and just being around him as often as he possibly can. He doubts that he’ll object to any of that, any time soon, because Luke is all that he wants and now he finally has him. Luke is now his _boyfriend_ , and it feels so good to call him that.

After a nice amount of sweet kisses and referring to each other as their new ‘titles’, Luke pecks his lips one more time before turning over to face the wall. Then, he reaches behind himself and grabs Ashton’s arm, placing it over his waist so that they’re spooning. Ashton doesn’t need to be shown how to properly spoon, since that’s one thing that he _has_ done before; therefore, he secures his arm around Luke and kisses the back of his boyfriend’s head, murmuring into his hair and wishing him sweet dreams.

Ashton knows that he’ll certainly have good dreams, too.

***

The next morning, Ashton finds himself in a bit of a pickle.

See, the problem isn’t that he really did have good dreams. It’s also not a problem that, even with the limited space, he slept as comfortably as a baby; which is actually a really weird comparison, considering the fact that babies often wake up and wail in the middle of the night. Either way, Ashton had a great night’s sleep, and he’s so damn happy that he got to share it with Luke.

However, the problem at the moment _is_ because of Luke.  Ashton woke up to find the younger boy lying half way on top of him, one leg thrown over his and his face resting against Ashton’s bare chest. The little bit of drool from Luke’s open mouth isn’t the problem, either. The problem is that Ashton really needs to go to the bathroom, but Luke—his _boyfriend_ —is way too adorable to disturb in his sleep. That’s why Ashton tries to keep his bladder at bay, until he physically can’t anymore and he’s close to exploding.

“Lukey,” Ashton says, soft but loud enough to rouse the other boy from his sleep. Well, that’s what he’d hoped for, but it appears that Luke is a very heavy sleeper.

Just his luck.

Ashton tries again, anyway. “Lukey baby, wake up for me?”

No response. Again. Well, technically he does get sort of a response, but it’s only when Luke mumbles something in his sleep. Ashton gets a particularly evil but very necessary idea, so he reaches down until his hand comes in contact with the exposed skin of Luke’s hip, where the band shirt is riding up. With the pad of his fingertips, he caresses the skin so lightly that it tickles, and just as hoped, Luke begins to squirm. When the younger boy finally opens his eyes and glares at his now giggling boyfriend, Luke almost looks like Satan himself.

Ashton still thinks that he’s cute, though.

“Good morning to you, too, angelface,” he says, then pokes Luke on the nose.

As if slowly remembering where he is and why, Luke stops frowning and drops his head back down on Ashton’s chest. He doesn’t fall asleep again, but he’s still restricting Ashton from getting out of bed when he clings to him more.

“Morning,” Luke mumbles, and he lets out a loud yawn afterwards. “Your bed is really comfy. Did you know that?”

Ashton snorts as he runs his fingers through Luke’s messy bed hair. “Yes, yes I did. It’s my favorite place to sleep, actually.”

As a reward for the sarcasm, Luke unexpectedly pinches the skin over his hip, then has the nerve to _laugh_ when Ashton gasps from the subtle pain.

“Geez, you’re quite the morning grump, aren’t you?” he grumbles, tugging on the golden strands a little.

Luke merely shrugs and yawns again. He doesn’t move or say anything else after that, which probably means that he really is falling back to sleep this time. Although Ashton feels a little bad for disturbing his boyfriend’s sleep, but some things just can’t be avoided; like his bladder, for instance.

“Oi, Luke,” Ashton says, gently shaking his shoulder. “Unless you want me to wet the bed with you in it, then I suggest letting me go so that I can make it to the toilet instead.”

Even though he whines about it, Luke finally does roll off back towards the wall so that his limbs are no longer entrapping Ashton, allowing the older boy to scramble to his feet at last.

“Hurry back?” Luke murmurs, just before Ashton leaves the bedroom. It’s still loud enough for the older boy to hear, and it makes his heart flutter.

“I will,” Ashton reassures him, and he means it, too.

Since it’s only about seven o’clock, Ashton tiptoes down the hallway and to the bathroom so that he won’t accidentally wake his siblings or his mother. It’s probably the only time that he doesn’t mind being awake so early, because he got the chance to wake up next to Luke.

It’s almost surreal. Ever since day one, Ashton has been wanting to sleep with Luke—except, he used to only think about it in a sexual way. Now, he really has slept with Luke in a literal sense, and it still feels amazing. In fact, Ashton is beginning to believe that just sharing a bed with someone dear to you can be just as amazing as sex, if not more.

There’s just something so intimate about it, so pure, like the way that Luke rolled on top of him in the middle of the night, or how Ashton kept an arm around the other boy’s slender waist the entire time. There’s something about the way that their limbs fit together like puzzle pieces, and how Ashton didn’t feel uncomfortable for a single fraction of a second. Sleeping together has been such a peaceful experience, and waking up together is beautiful.

Ashton already looks forward to doing it a second time, which is why he plans to go back to sleep as soon as possible. However, upon re-entering the bedroom a few minutes later, he has to wonder if that will be possible, now that Luke’s entire body is spread out on the mattress and he’s fallen asleep again.

Oh well. Ashton won’t dare wake him up again, because the younger boy looks truly at peace. He looks like an angel in the early morning sunlight, with his messy head of blond hair and his soft, pale skin. He looks ethereal, and for the second time, Ashton has to wonder how he ended up so lucky.

***

It’s closing time at Clifford’s Comic Books, and just like before, Ashton can’t stop smiling.

“So yeah, that’s when Cell absorbs Android 18 and reaches his ultimate power, which in my opinion is totally cheating, but whatever. He gets his ass kicked by Gohan in Super Saiyan 2 mode, anyway.”

Ashton hums as he listens to Luke ramble on and on about whatever _Dragon Ball Z_ episode that he recently watched. As a matter of fact, the series is all that he has been talking about lately, and Ashton will have to very sarcastically thank Michael for that, because he’s the one who introduced Luke to it in the first place. It isn’t too much of a problem, though, because Luke is extremely cute when he’s passionately talking about something.

“Hey, are you listening?” the boy asks, probably because Ashton has just been staring at him with a dopey grin.

Ashton nods and moves towards the counter that Luke is sitting on top of, then stands between his boyfriend’s dangling legs and places his hands on both of Luke’s hips.

“Of course I’m listening. You said something about an android absorbing Cell. Then what happened?”

“Wrong, I did _not_ say that.” Luke crosses his arms over his chest and frowns, which is rather contradictory to the way that his long legs wrap around Ashton’s waist to pull him closer. “I said that _Cell_ absorbed Android 18, because that’s what he does. He absorbs the powerful androids to gain his strength back when he’s losing.”

“Right, of course he does. My mistake.” Ashton smiles fondly and reaches up to brush the hair from Luke’s eyes. “Continue?”

Smiling back at him, Luke begins to tell the rest of the events that occurred in the episode, while Ashton continues staring at his cute face and trying hard to listen at least somewhat. He’s unable to help himself when he just gets lost in Luke’s bright eyes and how excited they get whenever he’s explaining something that interests him. Ashton easily gets lost in those eyes because he’s absolutely positively in love, and he’s basically come to accept it.

“Pretty awesome, right?” Luke says, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Ashton nods in agreement, though he’s not entirely sure of what he’s agreeing to. Just because he feels like it, as well as the fact that he can’t get enough of them, he leans up and presses his lips to Luke’s. It’s automatic when Luke wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s neck and parts his lips, allowing Ashton to do whatever he pleases. And what pleases Ashton most is the feeling of Luke’s warm tongue against his, and how he tastes like the cherry lollipop that Ashton gave to him earlier.

Kissing Luke against the counter without a care in the world is the greatest feeling, Ashton decides.

Eventually, they’re interrupted by a low whistle, and Ashton knows who it is even before he pulls away from Luke to look.

“Don’t mind me, just pretend that I’m not even here,” Michael says, as he leans against the other side of the counter with an intrigued expression on his face. Too intrigued for Ashton’s liking, and he’s about to point out that Michael is supposed to be helping Ashley in the backroom, but Luke speaks up first.

“Dude, last night I finally watched the episodes where they fought Cell! You were right about them being awesome.”

Michael shrugs and smiles at the other boy. “I’m kind of always right, so. Did you read the manga, too?”

Luke nods excitedly. “I did, but I didn’t get the chance to finish it. I’ll make sure to bring it back next time, though.” He turns to face Ashton and smiles upon seeing that his boyfriend is already looking at him. “I tried explaining everything to Ash, but I don’t think that he gets it.”

“I honestly _do_ get it,” Ashton argues. “It’s just been a really long time since I’ve watched the show, so I don’t remember everything.”

“That settles it, then.” All of a sudden, Michael pushes away from the counter and claps his hands together, which usually means that he has a plan and it’s probably not that good. “This calls for a _Dragon Ball Z_ marathon! Once your memory has been jogged, then there’ll be no excuse for you not to understand anything. Marathons are perfect for that.”

“What exactly are we marathoning?” They’re suddenly joined by a fourth voice, and everyone turns to look as Ashley walks into the room, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.

“We’re gonna watch _Dragon Ball Z_ at Ashton’s place,” Michael explains, which is odd because Ashton doesn’t recall establishing that they’re going to marathon the show at _his_ house. “You in?”

Either way, Ashley approves of this plan with a nod. “Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m ready whenever you guys are.”

“I’m ready!” Luke announces excitedly. He looks back at Ashton, apparently the only one who cares for his opinion, and asks: “What about you, Ash?”

Now that the three of them are waiting to hear his answer, Ashton supposes that there’s no getting out of it now. But, then again, he doesn’t think that he actually wants. After all, it’s the start of summer vacation, he’s done with high school for good, and it’ll be another two months before Ashley is leaving for university.

This means that there is plenty of harmless, stupid time to kill with his friends. There’s plenty of time to do shit like watching a million episodes of _Dragon Ball Z_ while fighting over popcorn; there’s plenty of time to fall on his ass again at the skate park; and there’s plenty of time to do anything and everything that he wants with the people who matter most.

So, honestly? There’s only one appropriate way that Ashton can answer that question. That’s why he points to Ashley and says:

“You’re bringing the M&M’s this time.”

And when that statement inevitably leads to the three of them arguing over who will bring what, Ashton simply watches them with a fond smile on his face. He comes to the conclusion that maybe things really will work for him in the near future. If not, then that’s fine. With the help of his friends and the wonderful boy that he’s fallen for, he knows that he’ll find some way to get around any conflict that arises.

For now, Ashton is happy with who he is today. So, what more could he ask for?


End file.
